Tim Roth is a director’s actor. The London native began his on-screen career under the helm of Alan Clarke with a volatile role in his 1982 television play “Made In Britain,” exploding in front of the camera and immediately putting himself on the map. One director after another was lining up to work with him, leading to plum subsequent parts in the years to follow with Mike Leigh (“Meantime”), Stephen Frears (“The Hit”), Peter Greenaway (“The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover”), and Robert Altman (“Vincent & Theo”) by the time he had reached his first full decade in films.
Soon, Roth would begin his ongoing collaboration with Quentin Tarantino, starting with his emotionally loaded performance as the charming undercover cop Mr. Orange in the director’s debut “Reservoir Dogs.” Practically every role the actor takes on is connected to a major talent behind the camera — a testament to not only his keen eye for seeking out skilled filmmakers but also his ability to develop collaborative relationships with directors, making the most in-demand projects in town ones that seek Roth out.
His most recent recurring partnership with a director has been with Michel Franco, with the two first working together on 2016’s “Chronic”, starring Roth as a home care nurse who works with terminally ill patients. That quiet, sobering drama earned Franco a Best Screenplay award from Cannes, and netted Independent Spirit Award nominations for Best Feature and Best Male Lead for Roth.
Despite the tough subject matter, it’s clear that the two found a kinship within one another, as they’ve reunited for “Sundown,” a film about a wealthy family on vacation in Acapulco, Mexico, who must head back home when a family emergency occurs. However, Neil (Roth) abandons the rest of the family to stay behind, for reasons unbeknownst to the audience. As Neil’s family struggles through their crisis off-screen, we watch as he wanders the beach, begins an affair with a local, and says relatively little to allow us insight into his perspective. The result? A fascinating journey with a character who exists almost as a Rorschach test — someone we filter through our own experience to try and probe what’s going on inside him.
In our review of the film from its premiere at the 2021 Venice Film Festival, Carlos Aguilar highlighted Roth’s performance, noting how the character’s “resolute calmness and disinterest in conflict testify to the actor’s ability for the understated construction of a character”. As an actor often associated with the more high-wired energy of his earlier roles, this relationship between Roth and Franco has allowed him the opportunity to tap into the more insulated facets of his toolbox, and the results have been remarkably fruitful.
I sat down with Roth to discuss this unique new role and what fascinates him about the working style of Franco. He also reflects on the directors who helped kick his career off, the experience working as a director himself on 1999’s “The War Zone,” and the exciting variance in his recent slate of roles, including a return to his Marvel Cinematic Universe character Emil Blonsky/Abomination in the upcoming Disney+ series “She-Hulk.”
You’ve said before that you tend not to watch the work you’re in. Have you seen “Sundown?”
Not yet, although with Michel’s stuff I will watch it because I find him fascinating. I’ve watched the trailer. I want to see the film with a group of strangers in a room. I want to see it in the experience he made it for. It would be nice to actually see it in a cinema, to sneak in the back and watch it and then sneak out.
If you’re going to watch your stuff, is that how you like to do it?
Yeah, totally. The worst is when you get trapped at a film festival — you’ve got to introduce the film or whatever and then you’re stuck because you feel the festival pressure on you. I can’t relax and watch it. I’ll make the effort with Michel, though. I’ve only worked with him three times, once when he was producing and twice as a director. I find the way he shoots and, once my job is over, the way he puts his stories together so fascinating. I’m really interested in watching this one.
Already having that relationship with him from your previous work, when did he first approach you with “Sundown” and how did he describe the project to you?
We were just talking about what we would do next, and it was an idea that he came up with in exactly the same way as we have worked in the past. We toss ideas around, we bounce off each other and play around, and then he goes away and writes a draft. He moves very quickly, by the way, with his drafts. Originally the film was called “Driftwood,” which is very much related to the character — or at least the character as I know him, I don’t know if Michel has changed it at all. I felt that’s what the character was: in the water, drifting, being tossed around or whatever.
So, Michel came to me with the first draft and we started talking and talking, moving stuff around, coming up with ideas, and he rewrites really quickly. It has always been that kind of relationship that we’ve had. For example, with “Chronic,” I had met him at Cannes and asked him what he was doing next and he said that he wanted to do a film about a palliative nurse, so I said well make it a male nurse and I’ll do it. Two months later, I’ve got a first draft [laughs]. He’s unstoppable. If the phone rings and I pick it up and he goes, “I’ve got an idea,” then we’re off to the races.
I remember seeing “New Order” and then before I could blink it was announced that he had a new one coming out and I was thinking, “Didn’t I just see a movie from him?”
[laughs] Yeah, he has a thing now at the moment he’s been talking about where he wants to try and make a film a year. I’m thinking, “Really?,” but if anyone can do it, he can.
It’s almost like the opposite of Tarantino, who’s notoriously been saying that he’s making ten and then he’s done.
Oh yeah. I mean, it’s different from that but the same in a sense. It’s like, okay I’m gonna give myself some rules and I’m gonna try and see what comes out. That’s the challenge for him.
So much of “Sundown” is about the silence. There’s not a lot of exposition in it, which draws the audience to lean in. What were the conversations like with you and Michel about the importance of silence with the film?
We’ve always championed the notion of a silent movie in these times. I’ve worked on episodic television, where you just go plot dump, plot dump, plot dump constantly [groans]. We loved the idea of going on a journey with a character where the journey is different from each viewer’s perspective. You can have an argument between two people who’ve just sat next to each other and watched the film you’ve made and have them go “It wasn’t about that. It was about this,” and “Oh, no, no. It was about this!” What a concept. What a nice notion that is.
I haven’t seen the film yet, so I’m not sure if he’s put music in it, but he’s very wary of putting music in his films because it can dictate what the audience is supposed to feel, and he’s not gonna do that. It was something that was discussed: the silent movie potential of a story like this, and letting the sound around the character that he’s just listening to exist as another character in the story.
And not to talk unless you felt like talking, and you never necessarily have to be talking about the subject at hand. That’s another thing which I find fascinating, and I don’t know if it’s survived in the film, but you can be talking about all kinds of things. That says a lot about your character as well. You don’t have to be on point all the time — it’s like I’m saying plot dumps shouldn’t exist [laughs].
How does that process impact your job as an actor who has to get into this character? With a role that’s so internal, I imagine there could be a unique challenge to that, but also potentially some benefit.
This one was certainly very different from “Chronic.” I suppose the scary thing for an actor when you’re doing something like this is that you have to remove the “actor” of it, if that makes sense. You have to strip that away. What that does is it appears to expose you, the actor himself. Very difficult when you’re putting that on the line. So, it has to appear as though I’m just wandering through this world.
We would, the group of us actors, meet at the end of each day. We would know what the scenes were that we were going to shoot the next day. We didn’t know necessarily what we were going to say in them. That was a moveable feast that was always up for grabs. But we knew what the scene was about from your perspective, from my perspective, from their perspective and so on, and we would sit and chat and have a bite to eat and then we’d bring all of that to the set. Then the discussion would evolve.
With this one, from Michel’s side his collaboration with his DP [Yves Cape] was really important. He’d be over there with his DP, and the actors were over on this other side collaborating amongst themselves. Then we would kind of meet in the middle. Whereas on “Chronic,” his relationship with his same DP was more about having this locked frame. We would play out the scenes, and then he would decide what frame was going to work. Then we’d carry on playing the scenes, moving in and out of the frame, all of that stuff. We were very worried that it was a bit artsy, but after a while we were just like, “well, if it serves the film.” In “Sundown,” he moved the camera a lot, which would always get a big applause from the actors [laughs].
Do you get a kick out of those unique, collaborative processes as an actor? You worked with Mike Leigh early on in your career, who also has a notoriously specific process of finding the script with the actors.
Yeah, with Mike I’ve only ever done that once, which by the way was only my second ever job, which was crazy. We did months of improvisation solo at the beginning, then gradually we were introduced to other actors like, “Okay this is gonna be your brother. This is gonna be your mum,” and so on, then we would live together up to a point. Then we’d bring the characters to locations that we helped find and all of that kind of stuff. A very tough process, but quite extraordinary.
By the time we were shooting with Mike, though, the dialogue was nailed down. It was never a script, but the improvs led to dialogue, which got honed down and then that’s what we would deliver on the day. So, in a sense you did end up with a script, but at the very end.
With Michel, it was very different. It still flows, it absolutely flows, you come, you go, you work on it a bit, you start shooting it and then you sit there and go, “Yeah, but what about if we…” It’s constant. My involvement with Michel’s film on set is probably six weeks because it’s a very short shoot. With Mike, it was months. We had that luxury, though. Michel doesn’t have that luxury, so you arrive with your gear and you’re ready to change and ready to play. You only need to know what your character possibly would do under any set circumstance, then he gives you a circumstance within which to place your character. It’s a very odd way of working, an unusual way of working in my experience, but I love it.
In your earlier films you often had this persona as a very rowdy guy, a punk of sorts, and looking at where you’re at now do you feel like you’re a different actor than you were back then? Or do you still feel like the same actor who was making things like “Made In Britain” and “The Hit?”
I think I’m the same. In a sense, I’m the same. Obviously, I’m a lot older and I’ve lived longer. I was given a great training from Alan Clarke, who is my hero, to Mike Leigh, to Stephen Frears, one right after the other. One of them was a very shy and insular character, which was closer to what I was, but I knew how to play the bullies because I was bullied at school. I absolutely could smell them a mile off. I knew what they were, and it was in a sense good revenge to actually play them [laughs].
But then I think it got to be lazy casting, when I ended up having to play, or was being offered, those characters on a regular basis. It was alright with me, though. Fear of unemployment is what drives actors, certainly in the early years. So, I just took what was thrown my way, and tried to do my best with it. I don’t have a plan now. It is more varied, although those bad guy roles pop up, and I don’t mind them. I kind of enjoy playing them. It is very different, though. The next thing I’m doing, which I leave to start at the weekend, couldn’t be further from that.
I’m trying to think of what’s on offer right now, or what I’ve got lined up so far and it’s none of the above, none of this stuff applies to those characters. They’re all very different from what I’m about to do, but then there’s a monster down the line, which is just brilliantly written, beautifully observed, and very complex. Hopefully they’ll get that off the ground, and we can start shooting that at the end of this year. Right now the kinds of things that people want me to be in are more varied than they possibly were earlier on.
It’s clear from looking through your career that you’re a very director-focused actor, which made it no surprise that you would eventually direct your own film in 1999’s “The War Zone.” That’s a tough watch, but a phenomenal one. Thinking about that film over two decades on, what are some of the reflections you have on it now?
I wasn’t looking to do that. I really wasn’t. I think what happened was I was annoying so many directors by having an opinion, right? [laughs] I mean, even Alan Clarke, my first director on camera, said that I should direct. Said I should have a go of it. And Ken Loach down the line, who I didn’t work with — well, I did way later in LA, weirdly — he was one of the first directors where Alan Clarke put me with Ken to watch Ken edit. He said, “I think you should see what this is about”. So, already early on Alan Clarke saw that I was interested in what the process was.
The directors that I was drawn to and still am, even though I don’t necessarily get to work with them as much as I’d like, are people that have an agenda, in a sense. That’s what I find fascinating. How are you gonna get your story across? How are you gonna get your opinions across? That’s not all I do, you know. I pay the rent, too. It’s a complete mix, but yeah, was I looking for “War Zone?” No. Was that the story I wanted to tell? No. But, I felt I’d been told enough by directors “you should do this, stop getting in my way, go over there and get in your own way” [laughs]. So I did that.
Do you think there’s a chance you’ll ever want to direct something again?
I’ve got two scripts right now that I am interested in doing, but do I think I’ll do it again? Probably not. If those scripts are good, I’ll pass them on to somebody I think would be great for them, but I don’t think that’s in my future anymore. I got it outta my system.
The caveat though, is that I can’t wait to see Kenneth Branagh’s film.
“Belfast?”
Yeah, yeah. You know, he made me think, “oh maybe I should do it again,” because I’ve heard it’s incredible. I really wanna see it. I love the idea of it. Especially with him, where there was this assumption about where he came from, and he just set fire to that with that film. I’m really interested in seeing what that is.
One thing you are returning to is playing Emil Blonsky again in the “She-Hulk” series that’s coming up. I know a lot of people aren’t super hot on the “Incredible Hulk” film, but I actually dig it, and I really love your performance in that movie. What drew you back to that Marvel world to play that character again?
Well, I originally did it for the kids, which I thought was hilarious [laughs]. It was before “Iron Man.” Everything’s pre-”Iron Man,” which was when they really figured out how to do it, I think. He’s a Russian guy, and I remember saying to them “Well, I need a dialect coach,” and they went, “Nah.” So, I was like oh okay he’s from London then [laughs]. So, we did it that way.
I just enjoyed the process. I really enjoyed the director and the actors that I worked with. I thought it was a fun thing for my kids to see their dad do. That’s the only reason I did it. Then when they came back around, I was shocked they wanted me back. They asked if I would come back, and I said yeah, and I had a lovely time. We shot last year, I don’t know if we may be doing some pickups or whatever, but I really enjoyed it. I always wanted to work with Mark Ruffalo, so I basically just got to hang out with him on a set. The fantastic actor who plays the lead in the whole thing, Tatiana [Maslany], is a remarkable human. So, I had a blast.
It was tough though, because you never know what you’re gonna be doing with these things. You get the dialogue first thing in the morning [laughs]. It’s that kind of thing. But yeah, I don’t know, I liked it. I thought it was a lot of fun. It surprised me. It just surprised me that they would think of bringing that character back. What they’ve done with it — no spoilers — it’s quite enjoyable.
“Sundown” is in select theaters now.