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“The War Zone”: Tim Roth Interview

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 29, 1999 — From sadistic roles in “Reservoir Dogs” and “Rob Roy” to singing showtunes in “Everyone Says I Love You” to playing a mean jazz piano in “The Legend of 1900,” Tim Roth‘s film choices have always been a little offbeat.

So it should be no surprise that for his first stint at the director’s chair, the 38-year-old actor chose “The War Zone,” a drama that centers around the incestuous relationship between a father and daughter. Yet one has to question why a first-time director would choose such a topic, difficult and disturbing even for him.

“There’s only so many stories you can see in a lifetime,” Roth explains. “Why not do the one you would normally make maybe 10 years down the line? Especially for me, if I’m going to find out if I can hack it as a director.”

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Adapted by Alexander Stuart from his novel, “The War Zone” refers to a middle-class household in Devon, England, where 15-year-old Tom (Freddie Cunliffe) and his family move from London. As his mother (Tilda Swinton) focuses her attentions on their new baby girl, Tom begins to notice strange behavior by his 17-year-old sister, Jessie (Lara Belmont) and his father (Ray Winstone). As he stumbles upon their secret, the adolescent is overwhelmed with shock, anger and confusion, leading to a determination to expose the truth and end his sister’s nightmare.

Roth says he set out to make a film that reflected the emotion he felt when he read the novel, rather than a play-by-play of the book itself. The trouble was, for it to be authentic he felt he needed to include scenes such as the horrific encounter between Jessie and her father. Roth originally cut the scene, then decided the film looked too shallow without it.

“I was insistent to shoot all those scenes,” he says. “Because if you come to the fence and then you bolt, then what’s the point of going? I want the victim and the abuser to identify with what’s on the screen.”

Part of the challenge was preparing his actors for such emotionally harrowing scenes. Winstone is a screen veteran of films such as Gary Oldman‘s “Nil By Mouth” and “Ladybird Ladybird,” but Belmont was plucked from London’s Portobello Road and, like Cunliffe (Freddie), has no acting experience. Roth says he kept a psychologist on the set and a counselor who acted as chaperone.

But how the film’s subject matter and graphic depictions will sit with the psyche of filmgoers is another question. Roth says he can’t predict the reaction audiences will have. He didn’t even expect the film would be distributed in the United States and was “amazed” when a showing at Sundance revealed positive feedback. But he expects it will be hard to stomach.

“If you walk, I’ll respect you for it,” Roth says. “If you stay, I respect you for that. … If that’s too painful for you — it’s too painful for me, too — then my advice would be, if you are feeling at a certain point in the film the need to walk out, look away and stay. Because you will not get completion if you walk out, and that has happened to people who had to go back and sit through it again because they wanted to know but couldn’t face it at the time.”

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Roth remains very proud of his three-year labor of love as a director but plans to balance it with acting. His next role — another unique turn — is in the Nora Ephron-directed comedy “Numbers,” co-starring John Travolta and Lisa Kudrow. But he plans to return to directing, which he calls a “much bigger part of the canvas.”

“My hope in making the film is that I made a good piece of cinema. First of all, I’m not a counselor, I’m not a therapist. I made an adaptation of a novel, and I took that and I put that on the screen. …All I can do is offer up what hopefully is an accurate portrayal…on what it feels like to be a victim…and also to be an abuser, probably.”

The War Zone” opened Dec. 10 in New York and Los Angeles.

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