Why Tim Roth Didn’t Watch Peaky Blinders Before Playing The Immortal Man’s Villain | Interview
ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke with Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man star Tim Roth about the new film that serves as a conclusion to the television show. Roth discussed getting to play Thomas Shelby’s latest foe, why he hasn’t watched the television show, and playing a Nazi. The film is now streaming on Netflix.
“Birmingham, 1940. Amidst the chaos of WWII, Tommy Shelby is driven back from a self-imposed exile to face his most destructive reckoning yet. With the future of the family and the country at stake, Tommy must face his own demons, and choose whether to confront his legacy, or burn it to the ground. By order of the Peaky Blinders…” reads the official synopsis.
Tyler Treese: Tim, congrats on Peaky Blinders. The Immortal Man. I thought the film was fantastic, and Peaky Blinders has always had some great villains in the series. It started with Sam Neill, and we had Adrian Brody later on. So you’re joining a really strong batch of actors, but this is really closing a chapter, so what did it mean for you to be Thomas Shelby’s final test?
Tim Roth: I was never sure it was, I mean, until I read it, and then I understood what was going on. We don’t wanna do spoilers and stuff, but I wasn’t sure. I knew the series. I had never watched it. I’d seen clips of it and stuff, but no, I’d never watched it. I decided not to watch it until after all of this is done, and then I’ll sit with it because my character wouldn’t know them anyway.
So it was good to come to it with a certain naivety to come to it fresh, I would say. But no, the world of it, I did understand the post First World War, then run the run up to the Second World War. It’s a short time span.
I think Steve and those guys shunted it closer to the Second World War than I think season six ended. So, they were aiming at that, and the opening with the bombing of Birmingham, which I think Steve’s mom was almost killed in, managed not to be, by chance. So all of that, all of that [is] going on.
Then the character that they were asking me to play was originally written aristocratic upper classes, you know regimental. I asked them if I could turn that on its head and play him as a working-class more of a school teacher, somebody that would be able to talk his way into and inside their world, rather, if it was upper class, they’d have twisted his neck and chucked him to the gutter, I think. So it gave him more leeway, it gave him more time to work whatever his magic is.
So I thought it was very interesting and well-crafted character. They were up for me, just flipping it and making him like that. But the history, the actors that have come through that show is just ridiculous. Everyone wants to have a go at Peaky.
You’re playing a Nazi in this, so obviously the film has you doing a Nazi salute. You’re saying, “Heil, Hitler.” Even as an actor inhabiting a character, does it feel gross to do actions like that? Because I feel like I’d wanna take a shower directly afterwards.
Yeah. When we actually did, I had to speak in German, but I wanted to learn it as an English guy speaking German. I didn’t want it to sound, you know, which I did. I worked with this incredible woman. We put it all together phonetically.
The first line of the film, which I think you’re referring to, on the trains… that wasn’t what was scripted. I improv’ed it. Tom, the director, laughed so hard and was like, “Do it, do it. Do it. Please do it.” I was like, “Yeah, yeah.” Then I thought it would just be lost in the edit. I just thought it was just a joke. They kept it all the way through. I still haven’t seen that, the opening of the film. I wanna see it. But yeah, it was hard.
But my dad was in the Second World War, and he always thought that it was just on pause; they would be back. He always warned us. He said, “They’re coming back. They’re coming back, you know?” And sure enough, it would seem that he was right. He’s not hopeful. I’m glad, to be honest with you, that he’s not around to see his words come true, but yeah, it did make you want a cold shower afterwards.
It is difficult. That stuff, I’ve done it before. I’ve played my first ever job as a Nazi skinhead, and so I’ve been down that road. When I was at school, kids against the Nazis, Rock Against Racism. I did a bunch of stuff with that as I’ve been on across the years.
But yeah, I mean, it is difficult, but you’re surrounded by people where it’s clear you’re doing it for the right reasons to make a statement.
Thanks to Tim Roth for taking the time to speak about Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man.
Source: Comingsoon.net