Tim Roth as Lie To Me's Dr. Cal Lightman. Photo by Joe Viles and copyright of Fox Television.
London-born actor Tim Roth has made a career of playing notable characters in independent films. He made his feature debut in Rob Roy opposite Liam Neeson and Jessica Lange in a role that earned him Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama. The actor was most recently seen in The Incredible Hulk opposite Ed Norton, Francis Ford Coppola's Youth Without Youth and Funny Games opposite Naomi Watts. Roth recently finished shooting Alexandra Rockwell's Pete Smalls Is Dead with Steve Buscemi. The actor currently plays psychologist/deception expert Dr. Cal Lightman on the Fox TV series Lie To Me, which began airing the latter half of its second season on June 8th. Earlier this month, Roth took time out of his busy schedule to speak with myself as well as other journalists about his work on the series. The following is an edited Q & A of that conversation. Enjoy!
The Fight Club promos that you've been doing are pretty awesome. How does that reflect what's going on this season?
TIM ROTH - What happened was we did one where Lightman goes along to an illegal kind of on the ground fights. While we were there, we shot a promo, which we thought would be funny and they (the producers) stuck with it. I quite like it, and it looks to me like Lightman should get bashed up a lot because I don't think he'd survive without that.
What can you tell us about any of the upcoming episodes?
TR - I think the overall thing that we'll be looking at is Foster's (Kelli Williams) and Lightman's relationship. We look at how they met, which is a fun thing. There's my character's relationship with his ex-wife, too, and also his daughter. The daughter stuff will feature more heavily because she's such a good character and the actress is so very good as well. But we're writing to that. And the cases overall are strange and there's a little bit more adrenaline floating around this season, I think.
Now that you have so many episodes under your belt, have you gotten used to the "machine" that is producing this show?
TR - At the beginning I found it difficult and a lot of that had to do with the scripts. They were trying to find the show; the writers were trying to do that as much as we all were. Gradually, I think we started to find our feet. The second season has been much easier in that respect. Once again, the two writers that rose to the surface in the second season have gone on to run the writers' (room) for the third. So it's gotten progressively smoother, which makes the job of acting in the show much easier. So it's become a much better experience and is even more fun now.
The will they/won't they romance between Cal Lightman and Gillian Foster, is that something we're going to see more of this season?
TR - Yes. There's a boyfriend that rolls up for her and there's the odd fling for my character in the second season. But they're actually sitting right down now to determine how the character is going to progress in the third season, so I'll find out before you guys do.
You met psychologist Dr. Paul Ekman to play your role - what was he like?
TR - He's really the sweetest fellow and a very cool guy. He's very different from my character, but the science is his. I was quite nervous being around him because I felt that he was reading me all the time, which, in fact, he was. He can't just stop doing it once you learn how to do it. But one of the best pieces of advice he gave me is when I asked him if he was ever aware of his body language and did he get to be too self-aware. And he actually did not. He said, "I'm not on-stage, they are. Everyone else is on-stage." I took that and ran with that notion when it came to the character because Lightman truly doesn't care how he gets a reaction, just as long as he gets a reaction that he's looking for from the characters that are across from him.
Since you're on the Fox Network and the show is based on this fascinating character, much like House, do you have any input on the scripts like he (Hugh Laurie of House) does, and are you involved as an executive producer on the show?
TR - I'm not officially, but I do talk with the writers all the time. They run ideas by me and so on. We now have a completely revamped writers' room, which is now going to be run by an English writer, Alexander Cary, and a guy from Brooklyn, Dave Graziano. Those two writers have taken over. They were my two favorite writers from last season, and they have a very interesting new group around them now. And I'll be meeting with them, actually, for the first time in a few days, and we'll be running ideas by each other. I'm heavily involved in the making of the show, which I feel is a good thing. I think you should be if you're central to it.
We all heard that it was a little difficult to get you involved with this show at the beginning. Now that you're this far into it, is it what you expected, and how do you keep a character fresh for so long when you are used to movies?
TR - I like it (TV) because I like being busy and this keeps you incredibly busy, but it's a very, very different kind of world from films. With regards to the character thing, I treat it as if I were in a long run of a play. Every time I come to a new episode, I tweak the character. I play around with Lightman a little bit and I change him. If you look from the beginnings of the first season and right through to the second, you'll see a difference in this guy. Although his foundations are strong and will remain the same, you do have room to play and maneuver and kick and scream a bit with the character. So as they've developed Lightman, it's given me more and more to play with.
What are some of the initial acting challenges you found stepping into this role?
TR - I didn't want to know this science; I didn't want to have that ability. So one of the biggest challenges was trying not to learn this stuff because I don't like taking my work home, but as you are around it, it does seep in a bit. The challenge really for me was always to try to get the material to be better. Once you have established the character, you can play around with it and you can change him and I did do that. But once I was allowed the flexibility, the next question was trying to get this material to be better and better. And by that I meant that I wanted to know the background of these guys. I wanted to know how they relate to one another. I wanted some kind of background history that I could sprinkle into the scripts and so on. So that was the challenge, really, and it's a day-to-day challenge.
Did you always want to work in this industry while you were growing up or did you have other professions in mind?
TR - I wanted to be a painter. One thing from when I was a kid, I remember acting as I was walking down the street just in case someone driving by would say, "That kid is exactly who I want," and then they'd whisk you off to Hollywood or something. There's always that dream in your mind when you're a kid, or it was in mine. But I was a painter and I went to art school and studied sculpture and stuff like that before I got bitten by the acting bug.
How far ahead do you know what's happening with Lightman?
TR - We have been talking about the third season already. I'm very close to the two writers who are running the show now. We've been talking about what we would like to do and different ideas and so forth. I am meeting with them next week and they're going to pitch stories to me and see what my feelings are. So I do stay fairly close to what's going on. I do know what's going on, and at the beginning of a season I know pretty much where Lightman is going to end up.
Are there any particularly enjoyable scenes that you can think of with some of your guest-stars that are coming up?
TR - I usually like it when they laugh. We have a tendency to assume with the guest stars when they come in. You're usually required to hit your marks and say your lines exactly the way they're on the page. On our show we have an atmosphere in which you can play around and improvise. I think it's quite unusual in television. So when they come on and once they find out that they can do that, then it makes for a very, very fun time. So usually I'm trying to make them laugh during a take and see if I can do that. Those are my good times.
What's it like working with the new show runner, Alexander Cary?
TR - There are two people running the show now - Alexander Cary and David Graziano. Alex is an English writer who was brought on by (executive producer) Shawn Ryan and he's very, very good. We had an instant connection, aided by the fact that we come from the same part of London. Then Alex brought on this writer from Brooklyn, Dave Graziano, who is also superb. The two of them had worked together before and now they are running the show. I have a very, very good relationship with them, indeed.
Relating to Cal pushing the limits of his business, what drives you to succeed?
TR - I think I'm a workaholic. Being out of work is probably what drives me, really. Unemployment is a great leveler.
What were some of the changes that you made to the original character of Lightman? Are there any other changes that you would like to make or incorporate into your character in the future?
TR - I think what's interesting about him is that he operates in a gray area of what's possibly legal and possibly illegal in which we've developed a healthy distrust for authority. I have to say I like that about him. So I think we're looking at developing the kind of rogue element of Lightman even more in the third season as it's certainly happened in season two.
Since you started the show, are you getting recognized more?
TR -No, it's not more necessarily. It also depends on the city you're in. If you're in a pedestrian city, you come in contact with people more, whereas if you're in a car place like Los Angeles, then you see people down at the supermarket, a restaurant or wherever. People are different, though, about the TV world. The fans are different and it makes sense, really, because you're in their house or wherever it is that they're watching you once a week. And you're part of their family, too. So they tend to be a little more comfortable in coming up to you in any situation because they feel like they know you.
Was Cal Lightman intended to be British from the get-go or did they change that once you were cast, and how do you think being British influences the show?
TR -The reason he's British is because when I was doing the deal with the guys at Fox, I said I wasn't doing an (American) accent because I figured that I'd be working very, very long hours and pretty much seven days a week because you're preparing the next script on the weekends any time you have off. So if I had to do an accent on top of that, it would have been a 20-hour workday. So I said no, and there was a lot of back and forth about it, but not really from me because when I was talking with them about it, I knew I could always go back and go movies. So I had that going for me, I suppose, and then when they agreed they were worried about it. But after while, they realized it's quite refreshing. It's a different sound on American television than what you normally get with a TV show. They embraced it wholeheartedly, and they've been very, very cool with it, actually. I'm glad it's happened. I think it makes the character a little more interesting for me to play. And, again, one of our show runners is from London, so he really understands that world.
As noted above, photo by Joe Viles and copyright of Fox Television, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!
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