A couple of months ago, I was asked if I'd like to host an Apple Store Q&A with Tim Roth to help promote the second season of his Fox procedural, LIE TO ME. Even though I'd only watched the pilot and maybe one other episode, I immediately accepted the offer, figuring I could quickly catch up with what had only been a half-season run. I also figured I'd be a fool to turn down the opportunity to sit up on a stage lobbing questions at one of the most boundlessly talented actors working today.
On LIE TO ME, Roth plays Dr. Cal Lightman, a "human lie detector" or sorts who can sniff out an untruth via the merest gestures, tics or stammers. For the first part of season one, the lure of the show was listening to Roth rattle off the findings of Dr. Paul Ekman, the real-life psychologist who pioneered many of the techniques Lightman employs. But this quickly grew stale, so, to avoid falling into a formulaic procedural rut, creator Samuel Baum brought on THE SHIELD mastermind Shawn Ryan to run the show. Right from the outset, Ryan (working with acclaimed television writers like Liz Craft and Sarah Fain) placed an emphasis on character, which allowed Roth to begin exploring different aspects of Lightman rather than strutting around and screaming, "Look at how brilliant I am" every episode. This approach has elevated LIE TO ME well above the CSIs and NCIS-es of the world.
As a fan of Roth's ever since I saw Robert Altman's extremely underrated VINCENT & THEO, I'm cool with the idea of being able to switch on the television once a week and watch the man perform. Do I prefer that to getting to see him in one or two interesting movies a year? I'm not sure. But according to Roth, starring in LIE TO ME is allowing him to build up some serious movie-making capital, which will pay off down the line when he finally re-starts his directing career. He's one-for-one so far with the devastating THE WAR ZONE (disclaimer: make sure you're in a very good place emotionally if you decide to give it a go), and the thought that his next film could be an adaptation of KING LEAR written for Roth by the late, great Harold Pinter makes me downright giddy.
It was fun to catch up with Roth two months after competing with the din of consumerism at the Apple Store in Santa Monica. I mistakenly thought I had more time with him, so if you're wondering why I didn't throw in more movie questions, that's why. Still, Roth shares some interesting thoughts on weathering the twenty-plus episode haul - and we do finally chat a bit about LEAR, as well as Alexandre Rockwell's upcoming PETE SMALLS IS DEAD. Hope you enjoy!
Mr. Beaks: Great to talk to you again after our Apple Store Q&A from a few months ago.
Tim Roth: (Laughs) Yeah!
Beaks: How have you been since then? I assume busy with the show.
Roth: We have not stopped. We have very long hours and days, and I don't get much sleep. I'm very, very busy, but I'm not sure that I mind being busy. We just got picked up yesterday for the back nine, so we'll probably go until April.
Beaks: I saw that. Congratulations. Now last season was just a half-order. This season, you've got a full order. You say you don't mind being busy, but can you imagine yourself doing this for a few more seasons?
Roth: I don't know, man! (Laughs) Well, they've got me! It's whether they want me or not. It's taking stamina, this one, and I'm taking it each block at a time. We're going to do twenty-two, and we just now finished episode eleven; we finished it at midnight. And then you get up in the morning and start another one. I kind of sat in the trailer yesterday and said, "You know, if we do get our pickup, I'm only at the halfway mark. Last season, I was almost finished." It's pretty extraordinary to think about. You try and pace yourself. But do I think it would be good to be around? Yeah, I do. If you can do this, you can do anything. This is a really tough business to be in, but I talked to Keifer Sutherland about it a while back. He's been at it a while, and he said, "Look, it is hard, and... your day is taken. For your family, that can be a bit tricky. But you can figure it out, and the benefits of it can be huge." I mean, the idea of examining and reexamining a character, and opening him up and playing around with him... it's like theater, really. It's long-form theater. And trying to deliver a little film once a week to the audience that they'll be engaged by... you know, you hope you do more good episodes than bad. It's a real struggle. It's a real challenge. But I really like the game; I think it's fun to play.
The thing with my character, I have to say, is that I'm very fortunate that they chose this as a device for the show. I've got a lot of different avenues I can go down. The character can be in a lot of different situations: we can do our cop show; we can do a thriller; we can do whatever. We just did one in Afghanistan. You can play around with stuff. We just did one in a courtroom, which was a lot of fun. You can really plunk him down into different situations, and that does open the character up. I also get to examine what makes him tick, too. So it may be tough, but it's definitely worth it.
Beaks: I know a lot of people were excited when THE SHIELD's Shawn Ryan came on as the show runner. What's your working relationship like with him? And what about writers Liz Craft and Sarah Fain?
Roth: Oh, well, I love them. The girls! I call them "the girls". I can't help myself, but they're fantastic.
Shawn brought this kind of calm, but incredibly solid and muscular presence to the show - and he brought along his writers that he likes to work with, too. And I could see the change in their first script. Liz and Sarah did the episode that I liked the most from the first season; it was called "Blinded", and it was a very fun episode to play. Suddenly, with Shawn around, you find you have more to play, and the stories are muscular and tighter. Obviously, everybody slips, but the slips get less and less. Shawn's best at character stuff. He encourages a journey down the road to what the character is feeling, and what do we want to have happening to him this week - and then we build a story around that. It's a very cool way of going about it, and I think we're delivering. We've found our feet, and found a way of telling these stories. I think, as the season progresses, that will become evident.
Really, for the actors, a lot of it was just trying to hang in there while the writers did their thing. And we were hoping that we could hang in there long enough, because we could sense that the juices were flowing and that the good stuff was coming. It would've been a shame to drop it at that stage in the game. But hopefully the stories will just continue to build and build and build.
Beaks: Has there ever been a discussion about doing a continuous narrative?
Roth: We would love to do that. That's always up for discussion, but the network or the studio - I'm not sure who makes that decision - likes standalone episodes so they can place them anywhere when the repeats happen. But I think we might get lucky. There has been talk, and I have been encouraging it, of bringing characters back. A good example of that was Lennie James, a friend of mine who came over from London and got me into all kinds of trouble [as the character Terry "Tel" Marsh]. The character was so much fun, and the actor was such a dream for everybody [to work with]. There's a thought of revisiting that world, and I'm all for that.
So it would be much more in that vein, the idea of stories that would continue on through different episodes. I don't know if we'll get to do that. Maybe next season. Maybe if we get "next season", they'll loosen the leash a little on that one.
Beaks: I hate to ask up this question, because you said you're only halfway through with this season, but have you thought about how you're going to spend your off-time from the show.
Roth: I'm going on holiday. (Laughs) Believe me, I've got it planned. I am so ready. I'm doing an early booking, and making sure the tickets, the hotel and everything are sorted out. (Laughs)
Seriously, if a film came up that was containable within the hiatus, where I could still get a vacation in, I'd do it without a doubt. If something really, really good came along, I'd probably say, "Yeah, alright. As long as I'm guaranteed a month off." Because I think we do get those two months off - if we get a third season. But for Christmas, I'm going to lay in bed. There's nothing going on there. I'm Santa's helper.
Beaks: It's just that we're very selfish, and would love for you to take on as many film roles as possible. I have to be honest: you really got me excited when you started talking about that adaptation of KING LEAR Harold Pinter wrote for you.
Roth: But think about it: if I do get to hang around and do this for a few more seasons, then you sock away some cash. Once the kid's college fund is up and running, it gives you some room to direct - and that is what I would love to do again. That is my private passion. I'll be aiming for that anyway; I would love to do that.
Beaks: So when you say "adaptation" of KING LEAR, did Pinter alter the language?
Roth: What he did was make it containable. It's difficult to explain, but it's an extraordinary job he did in taking what Shakespeare had written and cutting it back and trimming it and moving it around. On one hand, it's an editing job; and on the other hand, it's how you set it, and perceive the characters, and how you show that world to the audience. It's a complicated piece of work, but I think it's a quite brilliant script. It exists, it's there, and it's something I would love to do. I'm hoping that I can get to it. It's also a very long project; it's not something that could be done quickly. It's a very, very complicated thing to pull off.
Beaks: I wanted to ask about the Alexandre Rockwell film: PETE SMALLS IS DEAD. Alexandre is a significant figure in the indie film world; his IN THE SOUP was a hugely important film in the early '90s. I've read a little bit about it, but I was hoping you could tell me what this film is.
Roth: It's insane is what it is. (Laughs) It's really crazy. It's about a couple of... well, I don't know what you'd say - they're filmmakers, but they're not. But it's completely mad. I just saw some of it the other day; I did some ADR, and just the bits that I saw I thought were mad and very funny. It's got Alex's humor all over it. It's a very good cast indeed, and quite romantic and beautiful as well. He made it on a shoestring, which I don't think is every actor's dream to do that, but he seems to thrive in that against-all-odds world. And everyone comes to join in because he's a great guy. You've got Seymour Cassel, you've got Steve Buscemi, you've got [Mark Boone Junior], you've got Peter Dinklage, you've got Rosie Perez... it's huge. (Laughs)
Beaks: So we'll maybe see it at Sundance?
Roth: I don't know. I imagine it'll be on the festival circuit. I haven't been to Sundance for years, but it'll be on the festival tour and hopefully it'll get some distribution. It was fun working with him. I came to him just on the end of last season, so I was really burned out - but it kind of worked for the character, as you'll see.
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Looking forward to it.
While we're waiting, the very smart and entertaining LIE TO ME keeps chugging along on Fox at 9 PM on Monday nights.
Faithfully submitted,
Mr. Beaks
Beaks: How have you been since then? I assume busy with the show.
Roth: We have not stopped. We have very long hours and days, and I don't get much sleep. I'm very, very busy, but I'm not sure that I mind being busy. We just got picked up yesterday for the back nine, so we'll probably go until April.
Beaks: I saw that. Congratulations. Now last season was just a half-order. This season, you've got a full order. You say you don't mind being busy, but can you imagine yourself doing this for a few more seasons?
Roth: I don't know, man! (Laughs) Well, they've got me! It's whether they want me or not. It's taking stamina, this one, and I'm taking it each block at a time. We're going to do twenty-two, and we just now finished episode eleven; we finished it at midnight. And then you get up in the morning and start another one. I kind of sat in the trailer yesterday and said, "You know, if we do get our pickup, I'm only at the halfway mark. Last season, I was almost finished." It's pretty extraordinary to think about. You try and pace yourself. But do I think it would be good to be around? Yeah, I do. If you can do this, you can do anything. This is a really tough business to be in, but I talked to Keifer Sutherland about it a while back. He's been at it a while, and he said, "Look, it is hard, and... your day is taken. For your family, that can be a bit tricky. But you can figure it out, and the benefits of it can be huge." I mean, the idea of examining and reexamining a character, and opening him up and playing around with him... it's like theater, really. It's long-form theater. And trying to deliver a little film once a week to the audience that they'll be engaged by... you know, you hope you do more good episodes than bad. It's a real struggle. It's a real challenge. But I really like the game; I think it's fun to play. The thing with my character, I have to say, is that I'm very fortunate that they chose this as a device for the show. I've got a lot of different avenues I can go down. The character can be in a lot of different situations: we can do our cop show; we can do a thriller; we can do whatever. We just did one in Afghanistan. You can play around with stuff. We just did one in a courtroom, which was a lot of fun. You can really plunk him down into different situations, and that does open the character up. I also get to examine what makes him tick, too. So it may be tough, but it's definitely worth it.
Beaks: I know a lot of people were excited when THE SHIELD's Shawn Ryan came on as the show runner. What's your working relationship like with him? And what about writers Liz Craft and Sarah Fain?
Roth: Oh, well, I love them. The girls! I call them "the girls". I can't help myself, but they're fantastic. Shawn brought this kind of calm, but incredibly solid and muscular presence to the show - and he brought along his writers that he likes to work with, too. And I could see the change in their first script. Liz and Sarah did the episode that I liked the most from the first season; it was called "Blinded", and it was a very fun episode to play. Suddenly, with Shawn around, you find you have more to play, and the stories are muscular and tighter. Obviously, everybody slips, but the slips get less and less. Shawn's best at character stuff. He encourages a journey down the road to what the character is feeling, and what do we want to have happening to him this week - and then we build a story around that. It's a very cool way of going about it, and I think we're delivering. We've found our feet, and found a way of telling these stories. I think, as the season progresses, that will become evident. Really, for the actors, a lot of it was just trying to hang in there while the writers did their thing. And we were hoping that we could hang in there long enough, because we could sense that the juices were flowing and that the good stuff was coming. It would've been a shame to drop it at that stage in the game. But hopefully the stories will just continue to build and build and build.
Beaks: Has there ever been a discussion about doing a continuous narrative?
Roth: We would love to do that. That's always up for discussion, but the network or the studio - I'm not sure who makes that decision - likes standalone episodes so they can place them anywhere when the repeats happen. But I think we might get lucky. There has been talk, and I have been encouraging it, of bringing characters back. A good example of that was Lennie James, a friend of mine who came over from London and got me into all kinds of trouble [as the character Terry "Tel" Marsh]. The character was so much fun, and the actor was such a dream for everybody [to work with]. There's a thought of revisiting that world, and I'm all for that. So it would be much more in that vein, the idea of stories that would continue on through different episodes. I don't know if we'll get to do that. Maybe next season. Maybe if we get "next season", they'll loosen the leash a little on that one.
Beaks: I hate to ask up this question, because you said you're only halfway through with this season, but have you thought about how you're going to spend your off-time from the show.
Roth: I'm going on holiday. (Laughs) Believe me, I've got it planned. I am so ready. I'm doing an early booking, and making sure the tickets, the hotel and everything are sorted out. (Laughs) Seriously, if a film came up that was containable within the hiatus, where I could still get a vacation in, I'd do it without a doubt. If something really, really good came along, I'd probably say, "Yeah, alright. As long as I'm guaranteed a month off." Because I think we do get those two months off - if we get a third season. But for Christmas, I'm going to lay in bed. There's nothing going on there. I'm Santa's helper.
Beaks: It's just that we're very selfish, and would love for you to take on as many film roles as possible. I have to be honest: you really got me excited when you started talking about that adaptation of KING LEAR Harold Pinter wrote for you.
Roth: But think about it: if I do get to hang around and do this for a few more seasons, then you sock away some cash. Once the kid's college fund is up and running, it gives you some room to direct - and that is what I would love to do again. That is my private passion. I'll be aiming for that anyway; I would love to do that.
Beaks: So when you say "adaptation" of KING LEAR, did Pinter alter the language?
Roth: What he did was make it containable. It's difficult to explain, but it's an extraordinary job he did in taking what Shakespeare had written and cutting it back and trimming it and moving it around. On one hand, it's an editing job; and on the other hand, it's how you set it, and perceive the characters, and how you show that world to the audience. It's a complicated piece of work, but I think it's a quite brilliant script. It exists, it's there, and it's something I would love to do. I'm hoping that I can get to it. It's also a very long project; it's not something that could be done quickly. It's a very, very complicated thing to pull off.
Beaks: I wanted to ask about the Alexandre Rockwell film: PETE SMALLS IS DEAD. Alexandre is a significant figure in the indie film world; his IN THE SOUP was a hugely important film in the early '90s. I've read a little bit about it, but I was hoping you could tell me what this film is.
Roth: It's insane is what it is. (Laughs) It's really crazy. It's about a couple of... well, I don't know what you'd say - they're filmmakers, but they're not. But it's completely mad. I just saw some of it the other day; I did some ADR, and just the bits that I saw I thought were mad and very funny. It's got Alex's humor all over it. It's a very good cast indeed, and quite romantic and beautiful as well. He made it on a shoestring, which I don't think is every actor's dream to do that, but he seems to thrive in that against-all-odds world. And everyone comes to join in because he's a great guy. You've got Seymour Cassel, you've got Steve Buscemi, you've got [Mark Boone Junior], you've got Peter Dinklage, you've got Rosie Perez... it's huge. (Laughs)
Beaks: So we'll maybe see it at Sundance?
Roth: I don't know. I imagine it'll be on the festival circuit. I haven't been to Sundance for years, but it'll be on the festival tour and hopefully it'll get some distribution. It was fun working with him. I came to him just on the end of last season, so I was really burned out - but it kind of worked for the character, as you'll see.
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