Talk about being from another planet. "Well, I didn't know." Laughs Tim Roth, fussing with a scruff of hair and lugging on a trademark Marlboro Light. "To be honest, I had no idea how precious the original is to people. But I'd always wanted to work with Tim Burton. You know, it wasn't really the apes or anything. It was just Tim, " he says of the man for whom he turned down the role of Professor Snape in Harry potter ( both movies went into production at around the same time). "Okay, so I'm sure Tim still has fights every day, but now that his films make money, the studios just let him get on with it. And somehow, amid this huge budget and huge sets, he still reminded me of a fully independent filmmaker."
Then, of course, there was the appeal of his character, the fantastically fearsome General Thade.
"He's just like the shark out of Jaws, real kinda cold, " enthuses Roth. "I'm telling you, if he walks into your room, you should be worried. He may be looking at you and thinking about where to bite a piece out of your head. "
And while the notoriously painstaking make-up process may have been enough to deter many, for someone who counts among his credits a "fucking daunting" theatrical metamorphosis in the Kafka classic of the same name, such shenanigans proved a walk in the park. Almost.
"At first it's fine. Maybe you lose your aim when eating with chopsticks, but that's it, " Roth laughs. "But by the end of the shoot I had trapped nerves and two herniated vertebrae from that costume. It was like being punched in the arm continuously, and I may even have to have surgery. I think Tim and Dick (Zanuck) should give me the armour I wore as a souvenir. I think I deserve it."
With no fewer than four other projects in the works (I've got some crap coming out, you'll see, but I'm hoping there'll be enough good stuff to balance it out"), the 40-year-old part-time bartender/full-time regular on the Hollywood hit list may have found his time on Planet of the Apes something of a never-ending endeavour ("I knew when they told me it had wrapped they were lying"), but he seems confident of the results. "At the end of the day, " he smiles, "this is far more actor-driven than special effects. Unlike, say, Jurassic Park III - all that's going for it is William H. Macy." He sparks up one for the road. "I spoke to Tim yesterday, for example, and we were saying that even Roddy (McDowall) would have loved to have been in this. I think he would really have appreciated Tim and his twisted world"
William Thomas