Helen L Hottinger

It is nine-all on the outdoor table-tennis table in Regent's Park, London, a score arrived at somewhat chaotically due to the fallen autumn debris on the playing surface. the match began with Helen McCrory protesting a lack of interest in the score, but things have become more intense as the winning 11-point mark approaches, and the 43-year-old actor (soon to appear as a Parisian grande dame in Martin Scorsese's children's film, Hugo) has put on glasses. She's stubbed out her cigarillo. as a shot missiles by she says, "Lucky bounce! the ball hit a twig!"

Ten-nine ... understandably she's stopped paying our interview such careful attention. Earlier, a question about Hugo elicited a brilliant digression about life on a "family-like" Scorsese film set, always waiting for a henchman to approach the Italian-American director and say something like "Marty, it's been done." Now we contest a rally while haltingly discussing her husband Damian Lewis's new hit US TV drama, Homeland; and just as McCrory is describi