MM: Maybe not with a studio film. Certainly with an independent film.
TR: Yeah, the independent scene goes against type, so that might work. But again it would have to be something that had a really strong story, that wasn’t just the love affair stuff.
MM: It surprised us that you were interested in sci-fi. What about westerns?
TR: I’d love to do a western. I mean, Rob Roy was kind of a western, in a sense, but yeah, I’d like to get a western. It’d be hilarious. I love riding horses, too. I learned that in Rob Roy, so I’ve been very into it.
MM: How many projects do you have lined up at the moment. Enough for a year, two years?
TR: I have three independent films that I want to make. One is green-lit and the other two are right on the edge. It depends on the seasons, too.
MM: First-timers?
TR: Two are first-timers and one has made films before. The first one one is set in Detroit, about two junkies. The second one is about a retarded couple, which is dodgy ground after Forrest Gump. And the other one is crazy, I don’t know if I should tell. (Pause) It’s about midget wrestling in Europe.
MM: You’re kidding, that’s great. Do you ever think about the big picture—your career as a body of work?
TR: No, I try not to have any plan. And if one of these independent scripts comes to me by way of a studio with a shit-load of money attached, I’d be very happy. I’m not a film snob in that sense. Just because something comes out of the studio doesn’t mean it’s going to be crap. Occasionally they come up with some amazing stuff. But generally when those scripts are attached to studios, there’s a long line of very famous people who I’m way at the back of. So, you know, it’s hard. But I don’t really have a plan.
Tim Roth in Jeff Stanzler’s Jumpin’ at the Boneyard (1992), his first film in America.
MM: You were talking about Mike Leigh earlier. We interviewed him last year and are fans of his. Any plans to work with him again?
TR: Mike? I hope so. I’d love to. He’s a hysterical man.
MM: His directing style is amazing. No script at all? What are rehearsals like?
TR: Well rehearsal is very structured. What you do is you build your character from the ground up, and then he puts each of the characters in a room together to see how they’ll respond and react to each other.
MM: How does he get you to build your character?
Roth: You start by making a list of people you know that fit within a certain category and you spend a week just discussing them.
MM: Does he know what he wants or is he bringing it all out of you?
TR: Well I think to a certain extent he knows what he wants, i.e., this time he’s doing a film about the working class in such-and-such a place.
MM: So really vague, really broad strokes.
TR: Very vague. And then the story emerges as we go along. It’s a long rehearsal process, but then the actors he’d want to shoot a scene with the next day would meet the night before, and we’d improvise. We’d finish a day’s filming, get together and improvise for the next day’s filming. And he’d just be making notes of what you’d say during the improvisation, which would go on for hours. Then he’d distill it down, reconstruct it and feed it back to us. Otherwise the film would be about four years long. And nobody’s allowed to discuss anything about the characters within earshot of any of the other actors. He always takes you into another room, and you have these private discussions, and you’re not allowed to discuss anything with anyone but him.
MM: Cool. Not even off set?
TR: No. If you get caught doing that, you’re fired. He’d just work the character out of the script, probably.
MM: Pretty fascinating. And it works.
TR: It works.
MM: Do you ever want to produce something you fall in love with?
TR: I’m gonna do that. I’m gonna start being a co-producer on a couple of these films, these independents, because if you do that you can really protect the director. There’s been times when I’ve seen producers on the low-budget stuff I’ve done who are trying to make a different movie from the one the director’s making. So if I can get my foot in the door there it can at least help a little. It gives you a little more control.
MM: So are you gonna be co-producing on any of these upcoming projects?
TR: Well, I’m doing it deal by deal. Stoltz does it all the time. We did Bodies, Rest and Motion and he was one of the producers on that.
MM: What would you say are the qualifications for a successful actor?
TR: I don’t know. In Hollywood you just have to look good, I guess. I really don’t know. It used to be a much more mysterious thing. That’s why you don’t want to talk about acting specifically. Because it should be mysterious. I mean the bare bones of it are that it is actually hard work and the rejection is awful, but it was always mysterious and that mystery was kind of encouraged. And then when the media got access to everything, then it kind of lost a lot of its mystery.
MM: It’s like a magician telling how he does his tricks.
TR: Yeah, there’s no point. Then the trick becomes boring.
MM: It’s still fascinating. We’ve been learning the tricks, but still love it.
TR: I do, too. I adore it. MM
Share:
