 MOVIES |  | WIZARD Q&A: TIM ROTH | | The "Incredible Hulk" villain and Oscar nominee unleashes on his memories of the original TV show, last-minute rewrites and peeing his pants | | | By Jake Rossen | | Posted 03/27/08 | |  | |  With a film career that spans nearly three decades, Tim Roth—an actor best known for his work as a trademark Quentin Tarantino thug in "Reservoir Dogs" and "Pulp Fiction"—has largely shunned event filmmaking for smaller character pieces.
But when director Louis Leterrier ("The Transporter," "Unleashed") came calling, inviting him to be part of Marvel's "The Incredible Hulk," Roth decided to go green.
"I wanted to do something my kids could watch," he says of agreeing to portray Emil Blonsky, the scientist who becomes the unstoppable and vicious Abomination. "They love comic books. I enjoyed 'X-Men.' I toyed with it, ran it past my kids. They’re like, 'Do it!' So that was that, really."
After a false start in 2003 with an auteur take by "Brokeback Mountain" director Ang Lee, Marvel Studios plans to revamp and reinvigorate the House of Ideas' brooding behemoth by amping him up under the direction of Leterrier, casting Ed Norton ("The 25th Hour") as the title role of Bruce Banner and having Roth play the green giant’s biggest, smartest and deadliest foe.
With time ticking down to the June 13 premiere, Roth elaborates on his first encounter with his onscreen foe the Hulk, script rewrites by Norton and the dangers of over-hydration.
WIZARD: I heard that the first time you ever walked onstage, you peed your pants.
ROTH: Yeah, I did. It was a musical of Dracula. It was called "Dracula Spectacula." I was terrified. As we walked out onstage, I peed my pants. It didn’t deter me from acting, though. [Laughs]
The only time you’ve really embraced big-budget Hollywood was on "Planet of the Apes." Why "Incredible Hulk"?
When I met with Louis Leterrier, his original ideas for the film were very dark and very interesting. He wanted to cast actors, not "glossy" types. So I said, "That’s kind of intriguing."
He wound up casting Ed Norton as Bruce Banner. Did you know that at the time you signed on?
I knew he was one of the ideas floating around at the time. I don't know if they had met with him yet. I don't think so. It wasn't that it was Ed, although I think Ed was a great choice for it. It was just that, that’s the caliber of person they were after. If Banner doesn’t work, then none of it works.
Had you been offered any other comic roles in the past?
The only kind of big thing like this would be the Harry Potter [movies]. I was offered that, which I didn’t do because I was working with Tim Burton at the time on "Planet of the Apes." It was one of those things where one was enough.
Did you ever see the original television series with Bill Bixby?
Oh, yeah! When I was 14 or 15, I worked in Tesco, which is a supermarket chain in London. And my mate was a bodybuilder—I was a complete little wimp of a guy. We became fast friends. One of his ideas of fun was to paint himself green and put on purple pants and jump out of the trees in front of people in parks. We became quite obsessed with the Hulk. We thought he was brilliant. | |  What about the Ang Lee film?
I started to watch it, then I stopped. I felt the film I was making was this one, and I didn't want to make a comparison. I'd worked with Jennifer [Connelly] and I'm a big fan of Ang Lee's, so I just thought I'd put that [film] to sleep and not worry about that. I know there's a lot of controversy about it, whether it was a good film or a bad film. I didn't want to watch it for precisely this reason, these questions, which I know will be coming at me. I just felt like while I was working on it, I didn't want to have anything else in my head. Our piece is probably very different.
In the comics, Emil Blonsky is a Russian KGB agent. Is that who we see in the film?
He's not Russian anymore. He's an English guy that works with the American Special Forces. The reason I played him with my own accent is because they didn't want to get a dialect coach. He's a Special Forces guy brought on by General Ross to track down Banner. He becomes fascinated with how he becomes the Hulk and basically ODs on that substance.
He's really a lot of different things. He's a great monster, I think.
Are you the type to pick up the comics for research purposes?
I looked at a few of them, but it's a very different world—[in the comics] he's really a product of the Cold War, and I found that fascinating. Especially with the government we're about to get rid of, it has real echoes of that—building a fear of an enemy race, creating an enemy, being on the brink of war. I thought it had real resonance.
How much screen time do you get compared to the creature effects?
A lot of people made assumptions that it'll be me for a second and then it’ll be CGI. It's not the case. We did a lot of stuff with make-up, but it's not what you think. I was also involved in the movement of the character when he becomes the Abomination, the design of him, the movement of him, the face and everything, which was really good fun. These incredible computer guys are sitting in cold rooms and do this stuff for hours.
Aside from "Planet of the Apes," you're not really used to acting in the midst of special effects.
I enjoyed it! It was terrific. I love the invisibility that this all gives you as an actor. It's something you strive for in general with a more normal kind of performance.
Is the Abomination articulate, or does he just sort of grunt?
[Laughs] I never thought I'd be having this kind of conversation. Well, as far as I know, he's a grunting thing. It's tricky, because they bog me down with all this secrecy stuff. When they originally came to me, he spoke, which I thought was great. I think he does in the comic books, too. [Gamma radiation] changes his intelligence, as well. But I think they've taken that out. I'm not sure.
It’s been reported that Ed Norton made some pretty substantial changes to the screenplay. Did you keep track of all that?
That was part of his deal, wasn't it? There were rewrites every single day. [Laughs] I wouldn't even bother looking at them until I got in the makeup chair. Once you know where the fun of your character is, you're all right, and you kind of adapt to whatever they throw at you. It felt like a very normal filming process. We didn't have a fleet of writers, which was nice.
You grew up in the UK. Did they have Underoos there?
No, but they should have them for the Abomination. If you had Abomination underwear, I think that would be quite good. [Laughs]
Click here for a look at some of Tim Roth's previous roles! | | | | | | | |
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