Snapshot: Karen Allen, actress and star of Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull

Does if feel like three decades have passed since Raiders Of the Lost Ark?

It doesn’t. I suppose because I went back and did the last one, The Crystal Skull. That kind of reunited the group and made it feel more recent in my life.

Were you pleased to be asked back?

Absolutely. I was really quite delighted they decided to bring my character back and for Marion and Indy to have had a child together... I loved what they did with the story.

Could you tell when making it that Raiders was something special?

There was this feeling from the very beginning because it was George Lucas and Steven Spielberg working together for the first time. Both of them had had early successes, so there was this buzz around the film, the secrecy around the script... But I was a young actress, so I didn’t really have a sense of how successful a film can be.

Did Raiders change your life?

Yes, it was quite amazing to be in that film. I had started out working only in the theatre for a number of years before I ever did a film. Afterwards I was at a point where I really wanted to go back and work in the theatre, which everyone thought was an odd thing for me to do. But after I did Raiders I think I just worked on stage for about two years, which was something I did for myself, but other people didn’t understand that.

• Indiana Jones: The Complete Adventures is now available on Blu-ray