Fast-talking Londoner Tim Roth has played everyone from the tortured painter Van Gogh, to Hamlet's childhood friend, to a petty criminal in Pulp Fiction. He's even traded blows with The Incredible Hulk as the uber gym-bro Abomination.
In his new film Punch, shot in New Zealand, Roth stars as Stan, a boxing coach to his teenage son Jim. Jim's friendship with a local boy has him rethinking his sexuality and his future. The actor said those themes reminded him of his childhood days.
"Gay friends of mine when I was a kid came under the hammer. It was very, very difficult [for them]," Roth told The Project.
Punch is no gun-riddled blockbuster or Marvel movie, of course. It's a small Kiwi film helmed by first-time director Welby Ings with a cast of virtual unknowns. But when Roth got the script, he jumped at the chance to come here and get involved.
"I read it and fell in love with it, and I was on the first plane out. It was quite extraordinary."
Roth made the film in the early days of the pandemic when the world was locked down. Compared to Los Angeles, New Zealand was a bit of a safe haven.
"Walking around, no one was wearing masks and there were people hanging out," Roth told The Project. "Jordan, who plays one of the leads in the film, took me for a walk up the side of a volcano."
He was so taken by New Zealand's early success in the battle against the pandemic, he mentioned in passing that he'd really like to meet Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
"And the producer said, 'Well, okay. Let me look into that'."
It didn't take long for that passing comment, a throw-away line, to turn into an afternoon feed.
"Sure enough, I ended up doing selfies with her at a barbeque for the team who'd helped her through the election. It was just delightful."
The Bafta winner is an acting powerhouse, but he almost wasn't. He'd gone on his first audition when he and a schoolmate were just hanging out. For them, they'd seen it as a joke.
"There were these auditions going on for Dracula Spectacular, the Musical. Me and my mate went in there, he didn't get it and I, unfortunately, got it. I got beaten up by various bullies after that, but I fell in love with it."
He's played so many roles over his past four decades, but one question still comes up all the time: What was the mysterious, never-revealed glowing item inside the suitcase from 1994's Pulp Fiction? Diamonds? Marcellus Wallace's soul? The gates of hell?
Roth, who played Pumpkin in the classic Quentin Tarantino film, said it's a question he's been asked many, many times.
"Yeah, I get that a lot," Tim told The Project, then dropped the big reveal about what mystical treasure that case actually carried: "A battery and a lamp."
Oh. We were really hoping it was the soul thing.
Note: The above recorded interview was edited for time
