Ifans: Lizard costume was painful

Rhys Ifans has revealed his lizard outfit for The Amazing Spider-Man left him walking like a cowboy.

In the upcoming comic book film the Welsh actor plays Dr Curt Connors, a scientist who turns into a 9ft reptile after experimenting with drugs.

Rhys told The Sun his physical transformation required seven to eight hours in the make-up chair having silicone pieces stuck on him.

"After seven hours in a chair with not enough cigarettes, I was kind of in the right mental state to play a man who was about to transform into a nine-foot lizard with a dangerous tail," he said.

"I looked a bit like a crash-test dummy in a green leotard thing and it left me with heavy chafing. I did walk like a cowboy for a couple of days after that."

Rhys also found his early acting training proved useful when making the film.

"I remember one class at drama school where you'd go in in the morning and the tutor would say to you, 'OK, you are a piece of bacon frying in a pan'. He would say, 'Just kind of try to portray that physically - see how that works'," he recalled.

"You do it and you are lying on the floor thinking, 'What the f***? When am I ever going to play a piece of bacon?'

"Then the next day they are saying, 'OK, you are a lizard'. And lo and behold, here we are and I am playing a lizard."