The house with garden where the meeting with Tim Roth takes place, in Venice, on September 6, seems far from the din of the Mostra, including the 78e edition ends on September 11. The 60-year-old British actor hasn’t changed. The same gangly look as in pulp Fiction (1994), by Quentin Tarantino, where he played a little robber with his girlfriend “Honey Bunny” (Amanda Plummer).
The actor floats in his jeans, strides along, his arms tattooed under the white T-shirt. In Venice he came to present Sundown, by Mexican director Michel Franco, in the running for the Golden Lion. In July, he was in Cannes alongside Vicky Krieps and Mia Hansen-Love, which revealed Bergman Island, in competition. The multi-card actor, who has been navigating between auteur films and big productions for thirty years, is also the director of Tea War Zone (1999), a film on incest.
In “Sundown”, you play as a sick man who won’t have much longer and spends his vacations in Acapulco with his sister, played by Charlotte Gainsbourg… How about your character?
He is a man who decides how he is going to end his life. He does not return to Paris, remains in Mexico, leaving his sister to get away from it all with the family business. It is a luxurious choice, of privileged, because it comes from a wealthy family. I know the character’s motivations, we shot them, but I don’t know what Michel Franco did with them. To tell the truth, I did not see Sundown at the Mostra! I never watch my films at festivals, I prefer to discover them with real spectators. I made an exception, in Cannes, this summer: Mia was so anxious before she climbed the stairs that with Vicky Krieps we sat down with her and watched the movie.
Did you know the cinema of Mia Hansen-Love before shooting with her?
No, I am so ignorant! Initially, she had chosen another actor for the role, but in the end he was unable to do so. Mia shot the first part of the film on the island of Faro without the male character, then I came to “fill the gaps”. In its production, the film was already Bergmanian! Mia is an unusual person, so calm… She must have channeled our energy, mine and Vicky’s, who is just eccentric, “crazy” and wonderful. We met some great people on this island, but the locals are tired of this tourism around Bergman! My son Hunter Roth was on the set. He took some shots, some landscapes.
Your son is a filmmaker …
Yes, and I have another actor son, who lives in London, and a third, who is a musician, in California. All artists, good luck!
It is said that you left England at the turn of the 1990s, tired of the liberalism of Margaret Thatcher (1979-1990) …
It wasn’t really a choice. I went to the United States to tour with Robert Altman Vincent and Theo [1990]. My agent suggested that I extend my stay to enrich my contacts. And there came Tarantino, who took me in Reservoir Dogs [1992] ! And so on, other roles followed, I settled in. I’m so good in California, in a quiet place, away from Los Angeles …
Politically, you had supported Bernie Sanders during the Democratic primaries in 2020. How do you see Joe Biden since the operation to withdraw American troops from Afghanistan?
I supported Bernie but I do not vote in the United States. I don’t know, for Afghanistan, it all started with Trump… Besides, I’m convinced that Trump will come back for a new term in 2024. In the United States, the candidates are on a permanent campaign. is tiring. Moreover, there was a moment when I stopped listening to the news: it was during the Covid, we had to take care of my wife’s parents, who were at high risk, and we focused on that. Make sure they stay alive …
Besides Altman, Tarantino, you toured with James Gray (“Little Odessa”, 1994), Tim Burton (“Planet of the Apes”, 2001), Francis Ford Coppola (“The Ageless Man”, 2007), etc. Who would you still like to work with?
Hmm… with Jane Campion, and with actress Cate Blanchett, I’d love to! And then with a new generation of filmmakers, of course.
What are your immediate plans?
I am leaving in ten days for Africa, for Ghana, for a magnificent adventure carried by the French director Marie-Hélène Roux. We are going to tell the story of the Congolese doctor Denis Mukwege – played by Djimon Hounsou – who repairs women victims of genital mutilation, in his Panzi hospital. We took a long time to find the money for this serious film. Nobody wanted to finance it! I am going to play the Belgian surgeon Guy-Bernard Cadière, who has been working with Doctor Mugweke for a few years. Yes, it will be a Belgian who speaks English, which facilitates the distribution of the film. Then rest!