Acclaimed actor Tim Roth opened up about his long career during a visit to the Galway Film Festival and admitted stage fright stops him from doing more theatre work. He also confessed that back in the day he could be a “d***” on set although he advised others against it.
The Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction star made the revelations during a two-and-a-half-hour acting masterclass before attending a screening of his latest film Poison later that evening. The moderator asked him why he didn’t do more theatre asking if it was a “stage fright thing”.
“I don’t have any problem with this [masterclass audience] at all, but when it’s a play, it just freaks me the f*** out,” he said. He went on to reveal that a former co-star of his had the opposite problem.
“I remember talking to Cillian Murphy when we did a film together a long time ago, and it was the beginning of his film career. He was doing a one-man show at the time, going around doing a play, and I was blown away by that.
“Start talking about stage fright – he had film fright, very legitimately,” he revealed before joking: “I think he has got over it now.” Cillian won the Best Actor Oscar this year for his role in Oppenheimer.
As part of the masterclass, he offered advice to aspiring actors – although he admitted not always following it himself.
“Pause when agitated,” he said. “It’s an old AA thing but it applies to everything. I’ve been that guy – just because I’m panicking…
“I’ve been the total d*** actor at times on set. But you know, you learn not to be,” he said.
Asked what made him stop this behaviour he confessed: “Getting a glimpse of what you are. You get a glimpse of what you are,” he ruminated.
Surprisingly given his huge body of work including the acclaimed TV show Tin Star, Tim also admitted he is terrible at auditions.
“I have this thing…I’m s*** at auditions. Really s***,” he confessed. “The audition process itself is, I think, rubbish.
“I figured out that once I had three films that people could look at that were alright what the f*** is the point in the audition?
“They can find out if I can act by looking at those other jobs,” he ruminated.
