The first thing he's doing is Les Miserables, the six-part, non-musical adaptation of Victor Hugo's novel (PBS Masterpiece, April 14), playing French revolution hero Jean Valjean. “I think Valjean was the best superhero of all time,” says West. “He scales buildings like Spider-Man. He did speak a lot like Iron Man. But neither of those characters has done 19 years’ hard labor in a French prison camp. He is the toughest of them all.” West likes what he calls the character's “inner heroics,” too. “He has struggled against his own demons, struggled to do the right thing, the loving thing, rather than the vengeful thing."
Such excitement runs in the family. “My 20-year-old daughter Martha made a film called Creation, about Charles Darwin, when she was 9. She played Darwin's daughter,” explains West. “She was brilliant, but I said, ‘You're going to miss out on a lot of school.’ Now she's 20 at Oxford studying English, and she's very keen to get back into acting. I'm going all out to help her."
One thing that may change when West hits 50: his exercise routine. “In my 40s, I got into hot yoga. That's a good one that can last me the rest of my life. But I might have to eventually give in to wearing Lycra shorts and taking up cycling, because I can't really run anymore."