The Hollywood actor Crispin Glover, 43, is known for his portrayal of eccentric characters such as The Thin Man in Charlie’s Angels, Andy Warhol in The Doors and George McFly in Back to the Future. He has also appeared in Happy Days, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape and The People vs Larry Flynt. He plays the evil Grendel in Beowulf, which is now available on DVD. He divides his time between Los Angeles and the Czech Republic

‘PEOPLE OFTEN have a very structured holiday system, but I never have - not even as a child. My mother was an actor/dancer and my father was an actor too, so their philosophy was to travel with work and see the world that way. I think travel is really important. It gives you perspective, and that’s something people in the United States often don’t have.

When I was eight, I lived in London for two months while my father played Mr Wint, one of a pair of assassins who were chasing James Bond in Diamonds Are Forever. I loved being in London. We stayed in a lovely flat, and my mum and I wandered around Portobello Road and bought antiques. One good thing about being in the UK was that people had heard of my name. In the States, when I say, “Hi, I’m Crispin”, people usually say, “Sorry? Christian?” Crispin is an unusual name there.

As a child, I was sad that I could never find those personalised toys or name badges with my name on it. So I was delighted, as an eight-year-old, to find my name engraved on a monk’s tomb from the 15th or 16th century outside Westminster Abbey. We’ve got a photo of me sitting proudly on it. I went back to London a couple of years ago and took another photo in exactly the same place.

My hols: Michael Caine

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My Hols: Anastacia

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• Frequent flyer: Erin O'Connor

BACKGROUND

• My hols: Phil Daniels

• My hols: Roger Moore

• My hols: David Mitchell

• My hols: Tracey Emin

• My hols: Colin Firth

BACKGROUND

• My hols: Ricky Gervais

• My hols: Sam Robards

• My hols: Jimmy Carr

• My hols: Johnny Vegas

• My hols: Moby

I find it hard to relate to the word “holiday”. I travel a lot, so, when I get home to Los Angeles, I tend to stay put because, before long, I’ll be on the move again. I spend a lot of time in Europe and, when I visit a new town, I’m most interested in the museums and the architecture. Last year, I pretty much did the greatest hits: I was in Barcelona and saw all the Gaudi architecture – he’s by far my favourite architect; then to London, where I did the big two, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Natural History Museum; then Paris, where I did the Louvre and the Musée d’Orsay. I’ve also recently visited Cracow, Budapest and Amsterdam, and saw inspiring art there, too.

For me, though, Prague is the most beautiful city in Europe. It had its heyday in the 17th and 18th centuries and I love the fact that it is frozen in that time period. I can really feel lost when I’m walking through the higgledy-piggledy streets. And there’s less traffic than in, say, Paris, which flourished later in the 18th and 19th centuries, when they built those large avenues that are now full of cars.

I’ve spent a lot of time in the Czech Republic, but I would like to see more of the country. Last year, I spent as much time there as in LA, because I’ve bought a 17th-century chateau, 45 minutes outside Prague, in a village called Konorvice. I’m restoring it and converting the old stables into a sound stage, where I’ll shoot my own films. I even missed last Christmas, which I usually spend in LA with my parents, because I was overseeing the building work.

There is a Czech woman who looks after the chateau for me. She’s worked there since 1976. She doesn’t speak a word of English, so I’ve been learning Czech, which is an incredibly complex language. My range is quite limited, but I’ve got quite good at saying things about repairing tiles and walls.

The great thing about the new place is that it was a hunting chateau and it’s now a historic monument, so I have to restore it appropriately. I can’t just paint over the walls - I have to restore the old patterns. I also found out that the Czech composer Bedrich Smetana wrote his first opera in the room I use as my study.

When I was looking for somewhere to buy, I went to all the countries of my heritage. My mother is German and English, and my father has Swedish, English and Czech blood, so I tried to identify with the people in these countries. When I first came to England, I thought I looked English; then, when I went to Germany, aged 16, I was convinced that I looked German. I knew that I didn’t look Swedish, but, when I got to the Czech Republic, I felt that I did look Czech. I really feel at home there.’

Crispin Glover talked to Harriet Perry

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