SIMON Russell Beale may be one of the best theatre actors of his generation, but that still can't guarantee him a part in a Bond film.

And that is despite being a long-term favourite of Skyfall director Sam Mendes.

"Well, I've begged him," says Simon, grinning, of his friend who directed him in Shakespeare's Othello.

"You know, years ago, I did an interview in which I was asked what I'd like to do next.

"I said, off the top of my head, I wanted to play a Bond villain, which of course has come back to haunt me because one of my greatest colleagues does a Bond film – and doesn't cast me.

"But of course all off Sam's films until Skyfall have been American, and I am rubbish at American accents. But you never know.

"He may do a lovely English film one day."

Simon has had TV roles in the mini-series The Hollow Crown and spy drama Spooks, but he admits: "I've never been particularly secure in front of a camera. I look at people on screen and see these amazing performances and I don't know how they just switch it on.

"I could do it, but not from a standing start, only after three and a half hours of doing Hamlet."

This week, the Citizens Theatre audience will have a unique opportunity to see Simon perform alongside local favourites Billy Boyd and Siobhan Redmond in a special charity night show to raise funds for the theatre's seat restoration campaign.

Tell Me the Truth About Love, engineered by Maureen Beattie, will feature 'poetry by Burns, sketches by Victoria Wood, the wit of Oscar Wilde and extracts from Shakespeare plays celebrating love in all its guises'.

"I've never appeared at the Citz," says Simon.

"I've played the Traverse, of course, its great Scottish rival, but I must say, it's great to finally make it to the Citizens stage."

Simon, described by The Independent as 'the greatest stage actor of his generation', recently who won rave reviews for his appearance on the West End stage in Peter Nicols' classic Army Entertainment Corps play Privates On Parade.

Nicols served alongside Kenneth Williams and Stanley Baxter from whom he drew inspiration for his characters.

However, Simon won't be back in Scotland any time soon. The actor is booked up until the summer 2014. Yet, surprisingly, his recent diary revealed more white space than Alaska.

"I was worried a couple of weeks before Privates ended that I didn't have any work until November," he says, with a mock shudder.

"People said to me 'Why don't you just enjoy the six months off?' And I said 'Because I don't have any blinking money.

"It's all gone on the mosaic in my bathroom'."

The diary gap didn't last long, however. Simon will work alongside Sam Mendes in King Lear at the end of the year, but is currently set to appear in Harold Pinter's The Hothouse, alongside John Simm.

Simon plays Roote, the murdering rapist boss of the undefined institution.

"I've been lucky," he says of his ever changing roles. "I was doing Shakespeare then Spamalot arrived (he played the King) and then I had the fun of Privates.

"Then I read The Hothouse and thought this man is so horrible and vile, I'm just going to have to do it."

Perhaps surprisingly, given his talent, Simon didn't emerge from the womb spouting a Shakespearean soliloquy.

He acted at Cambridge but was them all set to study music at Guildhall.

Acting was, it seems, always a lurking intent.

When asked what he gets out of acting he once declared: "Not the showing-off, not the applause, though that's extremely nice.

"I just love exploring pain and ... what it feels like. It's partly a way of dealing with the intensity of emotion."

Regardless, he seems to have his work in perspective. Simon believes acting to be a wonderful way to go about the business of life.

"Isn't it?" he asks, rhetorically. "When you're younger you find yourself talking to young actors looking for advice, and saying: 'It's a tough job.' But I've stopped doing that. I can't pretend it's not the best job in the world."

He gets to immerse himself in worlds and play the likes of Iago and Hamlet, or indeed Stalin, in a comedy play.

"Exactly," he agrees with real bouyancy in his voice.

"And to read up about Stalin was wonderful because I love history."

He adds, in heightened dramatic voice: "But it would be lovely to do a Bond film or a great TV series – because I need to pay off the mortgage.

"And there's the mosaic, of course. Now, that really did cost me a fortune."

l Tell Me the Truth About Love, the Citizens' Theatre, Sunday April 14, 7pm. Tickets £25.