Tim Roth makes panic sound painfully ordinary and good manners sound rehearsed. We value the precision, especially in his work with Quentin Tarantino, even when the film around him tests our patience.
Fi1m perspective
In Reservoir Dogs (1992), Tim Roth’s Mr Orange is bleeding in the back of a car while Harvey Keitel’s Mr White tells him he will be fine. Roth makes the screaming sound like a man who cannot get past the pain long enough to believe him. We found him distressing to watch because his voice keeps the wound present even when the men around him are busy arguing. Most of his performance is delivered lying down, and there is nothing restful about it.
He came through British television in Made in Britain (1983) and Meantime (1983), then made his film debut in The Hit (1984). The early casting often favoured the volatile outsider, a useful introduction but a narrow set of expectations for an actor to inherit. Vincent & Theo (1990) and Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990) brought him wider notice before Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs brought the breakthrough.
In Reservoir Dogs, Tarantino and his collaborators give Roth little relief. Cinematographer Andrzej Sekula settles his camera near Roth on the concrete, so the wounded man remains hard to ignore. David Wasco and Ken Kaufman dress the warehouse with a hearse and coffins, making it harder to believe the reassurances. There is no composer; editor Sally Menke cuts against the radio’s seventies pop, and the cheerful music makes his pain more uncomfortable.
In Pulp Fiction (1994), he plays the diner robber Pumpkin, though Travolta and Jackson carry the film. Rob Roy (1995) gives him Archibald Cunningham and the opportunity for a more stylised villain. The risk is that his facility with accents and menace makes those parts too easy to keep offering him.
In The Hateful Eight (2015), Roth makes a pleasure of sounding practised. He plays travelling hangman Oswaldo Mobray with clipped English delivery, making each phrase sound prepared for company. We enjoyed the fussiness because it belongs to a man presenting himself, rather than an actor asking to be noticed. The film is too long and its cruelty limits the pleasure, but his mannered performance is one of its reasons to stay. Start with Reservoir Dogs; leave the snowbound hangman for an evening when patience is available.
Biography
Tim Roth is an English actor and director. Born Timothy Simon Roth on 14 May 1961 in London, he first gained attention for television roles in Made in Britain (1982) and Meantime (1983). His film debut came in The Hit (1984), for which he received a BAFTA nomination for Most Promising Newcomer.
Roth became known for his work with Quentin Tarantino, appearing as Mr. Orange / Freddy Newandyke in Reservoir Dogs (1992), Pumpkin in Pulp Fiction (1994), and Oswaldo Mobray in The Hateful Eight (2015). For his performance in Rob Roy (1995), he won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role and was nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award. He made his directorial debut with The War Zone (1999).
Other credits include The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989), Vincent & Theo (1990), Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990), Planet of the Apes (2001), The Incredible Hulk (2008), Selma (2014), and the series Lie to Me (2009–2011) and Tin Star (2017–2020). He has also voiced Emil Blonsky / Abomination in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
