Roache, who played Bruce Wayne’s father in flashback scenes in the first film of Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, admits alleged gunman James Holmes’ acts in an Aurora, Colorado theatre last month (Aug12) stopped him in his tracks.
And, like his former co-stars, he’s still struggling to come to terms with what happened.
He tells BlogTalkRadio.com, “It’s horrendous, it’s just an awful sickening thing to happen. My heart goes out to everybody who was there and everyone that’s connected. With terrible acts of violence like that, they just stop you in your tracks. It’s horrific but it’s part of this gun culture of this country, still.”
But he offers a counter-opinion aimed at those blaming violent films on the massacre: “I don’t feel I’m an authority to comment on the effect of movies on violence but one theory that I heard and thought of as well is that movies also exorcise our violence, they allow us to emote and release things that could actually happen elsewhere.
“Horrendous acts of violence were happening long before movies came along. You can’t blame it all on the movies, but that stuff is also going into our psyche so it’s a complex thing. I don’t have the answers. It’s just so sickening and tragic.”
Holmes has been charged with 24 counts of first-degree murder – two for each of his victims.
