Tonight on FOX, Tim Roth makes a big move in his career. Known mostly for his film work, he enters the fray with a new TV show called "Lie To Me" and plays Dr. Cal Lightman, a gifted scientist who studies facial expressions and body language to discover not only if someone is lying, but why. The series premise is based on the real life scientific discoveries of Dr. Paul Ekman and promises to blow the lid off the little white lie.
I was fortunate enough to speak with Tim Roth on a conference call in which he explains what happens on the show, and especially the many changes playing the character have made in his own life.
Let's listen in:
Thanks for talking with us today Tim. Can you tell us about your character and what about the role appealed to you?
Well, it’s based on Paul Ekman who studied body language and the kind of expressions that goes through people’s faces and can betray what’s behind what they’re saying. So, it’s kind of an interesting concept. At the time, I was looking for something that would keep me home. I’ve been traveling so much with work, and I wanted to stay close to my family. So, this came along. I quite liked the idea of playing the character, or possibly playing a character, in a long form, like a play really. A long run in the West End. So, it’s a character that has legs, really. He can be in very different situations, and I like that. So, it might be kind of a fun experiment.
How much of this character would you say you take home with you? Of course, by that I mean, how good have you become at detecting lies?
I try to take absolutely none of it home with me. I make a very strong attempt not to get to know too much of the science and not to practice it at home or any of that stuff because the real guy, Paul, he can’t switch it off. He can’t unlearn it. He knows so much about this stuff that he can see, in everybody, what they’re maybe thinking. He watches their bodies betray them. I don’t really want to do that. I’d much rather just go about my life.
How has it been adjusting to the workload, the difference between doing a movie and doing a series?
It's really tough. It’s extraordinary what these guys do. I’ve met a couple of them briefly before. Actually, I remember joking to one guy who’s very well known in this business. I said, “What’s it like?” He took me through the exhaustion factor. How am I dealing with it? Fairly well. I think it’s more difficult at the beginning, to be honest with you, because you’re establishing a character. You spend – and re-working the script a lot more, but after things settle down, obviously I think the workload will be a bit lighter to be honest with you. It’s much tougher than being in the movies, that’s for sure.
With the other actors and even yourself, is there a sense of choreography that has to go into the role just because you have to watch all your facial expressions because it’s such a key part of the show?
Well, I don’t.
You’re lucky.
It’s actually quite extraordinary. When we do these things, and the actors who come in. I mean, the pilot, it’s very much a pilot, I suppose, but gradually, the audience will learn. They’ll see stuff if they stick around and have a look at it.
It’s very hard for the actors who are playing the subject because they become very self-conscious after a while because when you put the camera really closely on them, it’s quite disturbing. We have to take them through it. It’s quite odd. So, some of the stuff is a little bit too big. We go softer and softer as the series progresses. You’ll see. It’s quite interesting though, and it’s all real. Well, it’s not real. It’s all based on real. Kind of fun, really.
Is the show going to take on a story that carries throughout the episodes, or is it mainly a stand-alone episode-by-episode?
Well, I think each episode will deal with a different subject, but I think there’s going to be stuff that carries through, too. I think you’re going to get a bit of both.
Why do you think that someone who is interested in the show will enjoy it?
I think it’ll be fun to see this kind of stuff and see how it relates in reality, in real life. Part of the fun is going to be Paul’s Web site that he’s doing, his companion Web site, the guy it’s all based on. He’s a scientist that it’s based on. He’s going to do a companion Web site for each episode. So, you’ll actually see the stuff that we’re making up and the stuff that is real. You’ll see examples of how – you’ll be able to train yourself to spot stuff. I don’t want to know. No, I think an audience could really enjoy themselves with it. It’s kind of fun.
Was there any particular tidbit of information that you learned about facial expressions or body language that kind of surprised you?
I think what surprised me is – I’m watching one of my crew walk his dog right now – all of it kind of surprised me. For example, I think they did in the pilot – I mean, I haven’t seen it, but when they put expressions up against each other, like they freeze frame on people that we know in life, and you’ve seen the exact same expression, you see it, and it replicates it, and going across their faces in the same way it goes across the actor’s faces and so on, it’s really quite remarkable. I found it to be very educational as well as fun.
I wanted to ask you to talk about the appeal for the large number of British actors like yourself, Hugh Laurie, Rufus Sewell, and others working in American TV.
I’ve done TV. I did TV in Britain, but I’ve never done anything like this. I’ve done TV in America, worked on a couple of things for HBO and TNT and all that kind of stuff, but it seems to me – I mean, if it works – we don’t even know if this is going to work or not. It’s all an experiment, which is kind of fun. It seems to me that some of the better stuff is coming out in America now. I was recently back in Europe and watched what was going on our British television. I’ve got to say I think the standard is getting higher here and lower there a little bit. The audiences are more interested in things like The Wire and House and what’s coming out of the States, so a little bit more interested and intrigued by that, and 24, than they are in their own homegrown things at the moment. Hopefully, this will help it change.
During your research, do you find a way to continue lying and consciously manipulate your face so it appeared you were still telling the truth? Is there a way to do that?
Well, I don’t know. You know what? It’s weird. The only one who could tell me - essentially, all of the acting is lying, right? All of acting is lying. It’s all deception. So, for me, for my character, thankfully, he’s one of the few ones that doesn’t actually have to be on stage. It’s only the subjects or people talking to him or people that he is talking to who are on stage.
I do know that, for example, actors … quite often get a hold of Paul’s training DVD’s and his Web site training stuff and also his books and use them. So, I’m always lying. That’s what actors do, so you never stop lying. It’s just how good you are at it, I suppose.
Your character is separated. Your partner, Gillian Foster, seems to be a dishonest relationship with her husband that he –
Why would you think that?
Well, I’m going by the show’s logic that your partner seems to be very good at reading body language. Do we eventually find out what he’s hiding, and why Cal won’t tell her about it?
Actually, what’s interesting about all of that kind of stuff is – and that does come up, but probably not in the way that you’re thinking, or maybe it does. I don’t know. Anyway, what it is, is that people lie for very, very different reasons. People are not always …, so the fact that I, for example, will spot something or Torres will spot something because she’s a natural at it, what you have to learn is to learn to remember. As a character, they have to - is that you don’t know what people are thinking. You can tell that they put a deception out there, but you don’t know why. So, that relates with Foster’s character. I mean, that’s going to spice things up.
I just wanted to know what your idea is: can you have a meaningful social relationship with someone if you’re dating them, or really close friends, if you always know that they’re lying about something?
Well, that’s a big deal. That’s a big question. I, as a part of this series, don’t want to get into bedroom stuff and all of that for the character. I think he should have an ethical line that he won’t cross, but relationship is absolutely part of where we’ll be going. My feeling is, and what Paul’s – he is in a very long relationship now. I met his wife. He can read anything. I think he has a deal – Paul, being the guy it’s based on. I think his deal is that if he spots a deception in his wife, it’s for a very good reason and not to worry about it. So, I think what you have to do is have some kind of contract with your partner. My character hasn’t got there yet. He’s a single guy with a kid. So, he didn’t get there, but I think that’s the way that you would do it. The way that you would do it would be to make a contact with your partner. The line fine as long as it’s about, but it shouldn’t be about something that threatens the relationship.
Did you ever consider approaching the character with an American accent, sort of like Hugh Laurie or Damien Lewis?
No. That was part of my deal immediately from Day One. I said … I’m not doing that because I was aware, having spoken to other actors who do that, your work level is huge. Having done dialects and worked with dialect coaches and so on in the past, I am aware that work level is huge if you want to get it right. So, I figured if I put the two together, it would be overkill. So, that was a deal breaker with Fox. They were cool. They were worried about it, and then, they stopped worrying about it after a while. I think it’s kind of fun. It’s not something we even address particularly in the show although I do come out with some odd phrases now and again.
Why do you think that so many foreign actors opt to use an American accent? Do you think that U.S. audiences are more accepting, or will they accept you better?
I don’t know. Well, it’s a couple of things. I think generally, they have to do an American accent if they’re doing something on telly. So, that was a battle that if they wanted me, they got me with my own accent, so that was a homework battle …, but I think there’s a history, kind of a love affair between American and the English that goes back in cinema history. There’s always been that relationship. Our English actors have come over here and have been employed, quite consistently for a very long time, for as long as film has been around, so it’s really just an offshoot of that.
I didn’t know the guy in The Wire, for example, was English. He’s that good. I know Hugh Laurie’s doing an American accent because I guess they had to play an American character, but this guy doesn’t have to be an American, and the folks were good enough to let me get away with that.
How much time did you spend with your real-life counterpart? Did you shadow him at work? Did you just meet him for coffee? How did it work out?
Well, the first time I met him was when we were shooting the pilot. He came, in fact, to the location where I am at now, which is a juvenile prison that’s been shut down, which we use. Horrible place, in fact. That’s when I first met him. He hung around. Then, he came to the set a couple of times after that. I didn’t – what I did – I mean, I talked to him about it. I did some reading. I read a couple of his things. I looked at some Web sites. Then, I stayed away from it. That’s what I tend to do. Now, I deal with what’s specifically in each script. Apart from that, I stay away from it because it’s not really stuff that I want to take home with me. Paul lives and breathes it. So, I just stay away from it. I think there’s a fascination there. Definitely fascinating stuff. I’ll probably pick up a little bit more of it as I go through, but I generally don’t try to have it follow me home.
Can you explain what the other members of the deception team do? Do they have the same skill that you have?
Gillian Foster that Kelli plays, Kelli’s character, is a psychiatrist. She’s a psychologist/psychiatry. So, I talk about her as she’s in the feelings department. She’s all mumsie and stuff because why people are doing what they’re doing is not necessarily my – I can see that there’s some deception happening, but if we have to find out why, if part of our job is to find out why, there are only people who do different things around me in the feelings department. She’s a shrink.
Then, Torres is what would be known – Monica’s role is a natural. Some are actually called naturals in the real world, but she’s somebody who just has an innate ability, for whatever reason. There are reasons for that, they think, which comes up later in the series. So, she just can spot you. She doesn’t know why; she doesn’t know what. It’s just, “Yes, that’s not right.” She’s good at that. They’re a bit scary, so he keeps her close.
Loker, Brendan’s guy, is a science … He’s doing like a radical honesty experiment right now where he plays around with all of it. He’s more lab-based, I guess. Research guy. He can spot them, too. He’s pretty good at it.
So, there you go. That’s what the guys do. There’ll be more of them, too, I think, people joining up if they keep us around.
You said that you were doing this TV show so that you could stay close to home, but you’ve also said that you’d be willing to return to the Hulk franchise if Lou Leterrier wanted you back. Are you still willing to go out and go on location in-between shooting the show?
I’m planning it. Between the pilot and the series, I did a film. I am looking at two scripts that take me off to shoot when I go on hiatus. I guess around February/March sometime, we’ll get the idea of whether we’re going to be coming back or not. So, once they’ve figured that out, we’ll schedule them accordingly, but yes, I’m going to be filming in, I think we finish April. So yes, I’ll be filming two movies actually, back to back. Not much of a break, but there you go. Fun stuff, too. There you go.
Has your involvement in the show made you think twice about when you lie in civilian life, whether it’s a big one or a little one or whatever the case may be?
No, you do what you do, but the only thing’s that come up along those lines is I don’t discuss them with the press. So, there you go.
You’ve played a lot of very memorable villains throughout your career. Is it kind of nice to be taking on a role that’s the good guy, the hero …?
I suppose yes. I haven’t even thought about that, to be honest with you, with relation to the … I actually think this guy could be quite a bad guy, which is going to be fun. There will be times when he will be. He’ll be the wrong thing. He’s going to suffer the consequences, so it’ll be kind of a bit of a crossover role, but yes, it’s a nice change. I’m thinking that the whole thing is just an experiment and see what happens, really. I’m quite enjoying myself although I am exhausted. There you go.
Don't miss the premiere episode of Lie To Me tonight on FOX followingAmerican Idol.
We'll be watching on Fancast.
Source : http://thebiz.fancast.com/
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