The director who inspired Tim Roth most of all
The ability Tim Roth possesses to infuse each of his performances with an intensity that so many of his contemporaries could only ever dream of emulating has set him apart from them and cemented his position as one of the greatest British actors of his generation, the likes of whom became affectionately known as the ‘Brit Pack’.
With early roles in Quentin Tarantino’s movies Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction and further efforts in The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover by Peter Greenaway, Four Rooms and Rob Roye, Roth is rightfully considered a true legend of the silver screen and has been called upon by countless filmmakers at the top of their game throughout his career.
However, of all the excellent directors that Roth has had the fortune with, one, in particular, seems to have inspired him the most and taught him the most about the profession of acting and the nature of making films. Unsurprisingly, that filmmaker worked with Roth towards the beginning of his career, and in a feature with A-Frame, Roth revealed his identity.
“Alan Clarke, who I did Made in Britain with, was the director who taught me about being on set and being in front of the camera,” Roth noted. “He liked to use Steadicams, and there was a film he’d made a few years before we worked together, which really pushed right up against the limits of the Steadicam style at the time.”
Discussing one of his favourite Alan Clarke movies, Roth added: “Elephant is only about 40 minutes long, but it’s about Northern Ireland and a series of killings. I think there are about three lines of dialogue in the whole thing, and it’s an extraordinary film. It was fascinating to watch. It was heartbreaking and very difficult, but on a cinematic level, it woke me up and really inspired me.”
Danny Boyle produced the 1989 short film, the title of which comes from Irish writer Bernard MacLaverty’s description of The Troubles as “the elephant in our living room”, a reference to the denial of the conflict by those invariably involved in it. The film screened on BBC 2 after it was first thought up by Boyle.
Elephant is not the only Clarke movie Roth has a soft spot for, though, as he also spoke of his 1979 drama film Scum, starring Ray Winstone. The actor said: “There’s another movie he did called Scum that’s about the juvenile prison system. When I saw it, that was the film that made me decide on the spot, ‘I want to do that. I want to work on films like this.’ These films are all movies that really touched me in different ways, and Scum very much changed my life.”
