Jones didn't know about Capote before film

NEW YORK, Oct. 13 (UPI) -- British actor Toby Jones says he didn't know much about Truman Capote before he was hired to play the U.S. literary icon in the new film, "Infamous."

The movie focuses on Capote as he writes his ground-breaking 1965 novel, "In Cold Blood."

"I was shamefuly ignorant of Truman Capote," Jones told reporters in New York.

"I knew his name. It's sort of a romantic name that we don't get in the United Kingdom," he explained. "I remember him being a sort of exotic figure and I remember footage of him at Studio 54 in his sort of later, bloated years. ... I remember reading the script, thinking: 'This is fantastic! It's got the momentum of a thriller!"

Jones said he prepared for his high-profile role by keeping on a continuous loop in his trailer a short documentary made while the author was on the promotion trail for "In Cold Blood."

"The panic of playing someone so remote, in a way, it needs constant sort of gardening and that was the thing I relied on more than anything else," Jones said.