"Superman: IV - The Quest for Peace" star Mark Pillow was recently featured in the following short interview by Empire Magazine about his role as Nuclear Man in the film and his life in years since then:

Watching "Superman: IV - The Quest for Peace", many people have probably felt driven to drink. Not least of them is Nuclear Man himself Mark Pillow, who is now a wine distributor in Houston, Texas. He'd like you to know that the 2007 Pinot Noirs from the Sonoma Coast are "incredible".

Nuclear Man was Lex Luthor's “"long range, truly devious criminal scheme" in the troubled, belated fourth Superman movie. Pillow, a body-building enthusiast with dreams of an Arnie-like career but little acting experience, found himself suddenly cast, through an acquaintance with director Sidney Furie's son, alongside Gene Hackman. Pillow admits to it being a nervewracking experience, but he was relieved to find that it was Christopher Reeve that got the brunt of Hackman's teasing: "When I arrived on set he said 'Hey Chris, you'd better do something about that body - look at this guy!'"

Pillow recalls that Reeve himself was "a bit different to Hackman, who'd come up through the ranks. He was more Ivy League: very well spoken and intense. But he was totally genuine and very bright."

After Superman, Pillow spent 18 months in Russia, Poland and Czecholslovakia, starring in the little-seen (outside of Russia) Western series Alaska Kid. He also “had an interview with Stallone for a role in Rambo 3, playing a special ops spetznaz officer", but neither the actor nor the role made it to the finished film.

Since then there's been only one more film role, in an unreleased remake of Trapeze filmed in Belaruse, and after stints in property management, bar management, and thoroughbred horse breeding, Pillow is now happily immersed in his "really high-end wines." He describes himself as a "stay at home dad" (he has two daughters) and says he rarely gets recognized as Superman's evil solar-powered clone. "I don’t think I look much like that anymore. I don't have the build or the hair."

The interview is featured in issue 251 of Empire Magazine which is currently available on newsstands in the US.