It is a summer’s evening in 1970 and young actor Malcolm McDowell has just enjoyed an early dinner with Stanley Kubrick at the acclaimed film director’s home in the Hertfordshire countryside. Kubrick has cast McDowell as the teenage delinquent gang-leader Alex DeLarge in his adaptation of the 1962 Antony Burgess novel, A Clockwork Orange.

For most of the evening the two menhave been debating what kind of look DeLarge should sport in the movie. Jeans and T-shirt, McDowell suggests? But Kubrick thinks that is neither strong nor subversive enough. They need something truly memorable that will act as a visual clue to the kind of people DeLarge and his gang of Droogs are.

As the director is seeing the actor to his car, he spots Malcolm’s cricket whites lying on the back seat.

“I remember him pointing to the cricket box groin protector and asking me what it was,” remembers McDowell. “I told him, explaining that the kit was there because I’d come straight to his house from playing cricket at my nephew’s school.

“Immediately, Kubrick exclaimed that was it! DeLarge should wear the cricket box, but over rather than under cricket whites. I think he thought the result would be a mix of provocation, costume and a defiance of norms, with a nod to medieval codpieces.

He laughs. “It’s insane to think one of the most iconic costumes in cinema history came about because I’d just happened to play in a school cricket match.”

We may be chatting away like old friends, but before the call with Malcolm I had felt a tad apprehensive.

This was the man who had unsettledaudiences as rebellious Mick Travis in the 1968 film If… And then positively terrified them – or me at any rate – playing thebrilliantly brutal, stylishly savage, charming yet horrifying, cricket box and bowler hat wearing Alex DeLarge.

He’s brought a certain menace to countless other roles, but speaking from his home in California, McDowell is warm, witty and not at all scary. I tell him about my initial trepidation and he laughs.

“You know the movie villain is always the English person, don’t you? It’s to do with the accent. Also, when I was younger, I had this punkish kind of face so I was cast in those kind of roles. But I was never really like that in person.”

Playing DeLarge has defined McDowell’s career. It was 50 years ago and yet herewe are still talking about it. I can’t help wondering if he ever gets a bit sick of it?

“Not sick of it,” he replies. “Though I do eye-roll a bit. It’s true I became type-cast as a result, but I’ve had – and am still having – a great career so I can hardly complain.

“I think I’ve gone through certain stages of my relationship with that film. For quite some years afterwards I wanted to move on, and I didn’t actually see it for a long time.

“But it is a truly iconic movie and a huge memory for me. I basically remember every scene that I shot.”

In the five decades since making A Clockwork Orange, McDowell has continued to be cast as oddball, maverick and unhinged characters – think Caligula inthe 1979 film of the same name,HG Wells in Time After Time and the Captain Kirk-killing Dr Tolian Soran in the 1994 Star Trek film.

His most recent role – in The Partisan, released on Friday – is also in this oddball vein, with McDowell playing a shady undercover agent named Trenchcoat.

“The film is set in World War Two. It’s actually the true story of a woman named Krystyna Skarbek (played by Morgane Polanski), a Polish agent working for the British Special Operations Executive. My character recruits her,” he says.

“Trenchcoat wasn’t a real person, more of an interpretation or amalgamation of several people like him. He’s in the John le Carre mould of spies. In other words, what you see is not necessarily what you get.

“He knows he’s probably sending Krystyna to her death by recruiting her – as was what so often happened. I had never heard of Krystyna before, but one of the reasons I wanted to do the filmis because I’m completely fascinated by World War Two. I’m always watchingprogrammes on YouTube and the History Channel. My wife thinks I’m obsessed.

“I find that period so interesting – how it came about, what led up to it, what red flags should have been spotted but weren’t.”

Malcolm’s father was an RAF pilot in the war but barely spoke of what happened to him during those years.

“Dad flew Wellington bombers but you’d never have known because he just didn’t talk about it, many men didn’t,” he says.

“The only thing I remember him telling me was how one of his Tail End Charlie’s, who was killed in the air, had his watchstolen by an ambulance man when theaircraft landed in the UK. Dad was incensed by that!”

Malcolm has lived in California for more than 40 years and taken dual Americancitizenship. His wife, Kelly, and their three sons, aged 16 to 21, are all American.

Ditto his two children Lilly and Charlie from his previous marriage to actress Mary Steenburgen. Yet he says he still feels British.

“I’ve kept my passport and I do consider myself to be British. I’m a massive Liverpool fan – have been since I was first taken to Anfield as a boy – and I’m delighted to say I’ve passed my passion down to my sons.. There are things I really miss about the UK – reading the Sunday newspapers in print form is one. Going through them, throwing my hands up in the air and exclaiming that I don’t believe something or the other.

“I feel so blessed that I was in London during the 1960s.

“It was such an incredible time; the music, the fashion, the new plays, the ground-breaking movies and just the general feeling of hope and positivity. But America is now home to me. It’s where everyone I love is.”

One of those Malcolm loves is his baby granddaughter, Tove Jane, the daughter of son Charlie andwife, “Emily in Paris” star Lily Collins, who announced the baby’s birth by surrogatelast January. “She’s absolutely gorgeous. Absolutely beautiful,” he beams. “As are my three other granddaughters. I love being around them and just watching the antics that go on, the dynamic and the difference between them all. It’s staggering.

“They’re so different in personality and everything. It’s just beautiful to watch.”

Lily, of course, is the daughter of singing superstar Phil Collins and I can’t helpwondering if the two legends – Malcolm and Phil – hang out? Malcolm laughs.

“Not really – I mean, I live in California while he lives in Miami, I think, so there’s quite a distance between us. We met at Charlie and Lily’s wedding and had a really good time. He’s been sick, of course, butI’m glad to see that he seems to be doing better. His voice is still magical.”

Watching Malcolm as he chats, it suddenly occurs to me that, at times, he looks a bit like another British superstar – Sting. He cracks up at this observation.

“Sting’s grandad, more like! Actually, it was commented on once – years and years ago when he was becoming well-known. Someone said I reminded them of the singer in the Police. I’d never heard of the band and thought what a weird name it was.”

He may be 82 but Malcolm has no plans to retire – anything but.

“When the phone stops ringing… that’s when you retire as an actor,” he says. “If they still want me to do it, I do it. I love working and although I’ve slowed down a bit, I get more offers now than I did in my 20s. It’s insane but it’s the way I like it.

“What the hell? I like going from one thing to another. It’s kind of fun.”

The Partisan is released in UK cinemas on October 3 and for streaming on October 27