Rhys Ifans delighted with Lizard make up

Welsh actor Rhys Ifans found his transformation into The Lizard on the set of The Amazing Spider-Man "fascinating" - even though he was stuck in the make-up chair for a mind-numbing eight hours.

The Notting Hill star plays Dr. Curt Connors, an amputee scientist who experiments with drugs to try and replace limbs and subsequently turns into a huge lizard.

The character is mostly created through CGI technology, but Ifans still had to spend several hours in the make-up chair to get into character.

And despite the lengthy stints in the hands of the make-up artists, he was blown away by their talents.

He tells The Sun, "It would entail me sitting in a make-up chair for seven to eight hours with four make-up artists. I emphasise the word artist. They were working on various parts of my body, applying these silicone pieces and painting each scale individually.

"That might sound excruciating but it was actually fascinating to see how these people work. I was able to view in slow motion, over the period of seven hours, this very dramatic physical change."

However, he admits his patience started to fray at the end of the make-over - but his irritability simply helped him get ready to play the villain.

He adds, "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. 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."