If you are old enough to have been watching t.v. ten years ago, you might remember a very popular series called "Beauty and the Beast" in which lovely Terminator fighter Linda Hamilton fell for an underworld guy who wasn't quite human. He looked like a big lion, in fact. Unique actor Ron Perlman was able to project a fantastic humanity and pathos through his make-up to create a very well-loved character. He's done it again, as the big red devil-dude Hellboy, a devil's spawn who just wants to be a regular guy and get the girl. We chatted with the actor about his very personal struggle with looking "different" as a kid, his love and respect for the comic book character and his wonderful ability to make strange-looking characters live, breathe and emotionally touch us.

TeenHollywood: Had you ever read the Hellboy comic before doing this film?

Ron: I'm a huge fan of the comics now. I was told about Hellboy moments after (director) Guillermo (Del Toro) first met with (creator) Mike Mignola about the idea of adapting it to the screen. And I refused to allow myself to become emotionally involved because I really never believed that it would be me playing it. You don't want to fall in love with some chick only to see some other guy going down the aisle with her. So I refused to allow myself to indulge in the universe of Hellboy, even though I was peripherally introduced to him on that evening. Guillermo said: 'I've now been given the rights to adapt this and in a perfect world, I'd like to see you play the guy'.