Callow made an uncredited appearance as a music lecturer in James Ivory's well-received period drama "Howards End" (1992), played one half of a gay couple in the much talked about "Four Weddings and A Funeral" (1994), and--in a complete departure--showed up in the Jean-Claude Van Damme action feature "Street Fighter" (1994) as a pompous official of an international organization. He remained in Hollywood for a far more eagerly anticipated commercial venture: playing the hissable villain in "Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls" (1995).
An established theater ("Shirley Valentine" on the London and Broadway stage), TV and opera director, Callow helmed his first feature, "The Ballad of the Sad Cafe" (1991) for the Merchant-Ivory team. He is also the author of the non-fiction books, "Being an Actor" (1984), "Charles Laughton: A Difficult Actor" (1988), "Shooting the Actor" based on a diary he kept during the shooting of Dusan Makavejev's "Manifesto" (1988) and "Orson Welles: The Road to Xanadu" (1995).