(Cover) - EN Showbiz - Richard Armitage says his face doesn't "lend itself" to playing happy and nice characters.

The British actor stars as villain Heinz Kruger in Marvel Comics superhero adaptation Captain America: The First Avenger, alongside Chris Evans.

Richard says his face is perfect to portray film baddies.

"I suppose I'm a bit mean. My face on camera doesn't lend itself to happy nice guys. I think it's just that my bone structure looks menacing. I don't smile that often," he revealed in an interview with British newspaper The Telegraph.

Richard's character in the much-anticipated movie is a Teutonic assassin who at one point is involved in an underwater tussle.

The 39-year-old star has a phobia of water, and struggled immensely with the high-octane scene.

"I am just not a water baby. I can swim but I just don't. Everyone else is jumping in and I'll go, 'You know what? I'll just stand on the side,'" he quipped.

"I did four weeks of scuba training for the sequence and made myself do fifty lengths every day. Then we were at the bottom of a tank and there was ten metres above you. They had put a microphone in the water so you could hear them say, 'Just waiting for the bubbles to clear.' I'm at the bottom of the tank thinking, I've taken a deep breath but I haven't got enough air.' When they asked me to do it again I was sitting in the dressing room crying, 'I can't!'" (C) Cover Media