Five times Oscar-nominated Tom Hanks declared he no longer feels insecure about his acting.

The 52-year-old actor and producer also said he had given up on being vain.

Hanks, who won Best Actor Oscars for Philadelphia and Forrest Gump, told the Radio Times: "I no longer feel insecure about my acting.

"Early on I took any job that was offered, milking it for the money. I had no idea what I was doing - that's when insecurity and self-loathing start.

"Essentially I'm a mountain climber saying to myself 'See that peak? No-one else has gone up there, and I know how to'."

Hanks's new film, Angels And Demons, sees him reprise the role of Robert Langdon from the Da Vinci Code.

Speaking about throwing away his vanity, Hanks said: "After a while you have to give up being vain.

"For a long time I wouldn't wear a hat because I thought it looked stupid. But guess what? This is what I look like in a hat, so who cares?

"In Angels And Demons I have to wear a Speedo to go swimming. It takes a real man to slap on a Speedo and say 'I'm ready for work'.

"And my face - from one side it's decent, from the other it's as if someone carved a pumpkin. But this is the way I look, and I'm in the finest, most rewarding, artistic job."

Despite the success of the Da Vinci Code as a book and film, the story was not so well received by critics.

Hanks said: "I read the book in 15 hours and there's a lot of cockamamie stuff, but I couldn't wait to see what happens next, whether or not it's well written.

"The movie did OK with its faked contrivances and goofy hunt through the Priory of Sion, but you should have been in Cannes with us when it opened.

"The reception couldn't have been worse. Everyone slunk out of town with their heads between their shoulders. We called it 'the Bonfire of the Unsold Tickets'. Everything ended up in its proper perspective, though, which usually happens. The audience wins out."

He had no doubts about making Angels And Demons, in which an ancient secret brotherhood threatens to blow up the Vatican.

Hanks told the magazine: "Why would I hand this gig to someone else? I'm not stupid.If you can make sense of The Da Vinci Code, you realise Langdon is a highly intelligent, interdisciplinary genius, and that's the sort of part selfish actors try to land.

"We play fast and loose with an awful lot of fact, but a trickle of authenticity makes it plausible. It's not important, but it's fun."