Tim Roth on TV Guide
How are you enjoying Lie to Me so far?
The series, which stars, Tim Roth, is about to end its season run this month. The show airs on Fox and tackles crime-solving based on scientific based techniques using body language.
TV Guide interviews its lead and talks about the dark side of Lie to Me —
Excerpts from the TV Guide Interview:
Lightman’s techniques, based on those of lie-detection expert Paul Ekman, envision a more humane brand of crime-fighting, in which intellect trumps physical force. Ekman works with real-life interrogators to help his techniques gain traction.
"I would imagine, for example, with a police force, if they learned to read some fairly simple things that I know Ekman works with them on, people could be safer, there could be less people hurt," Roth says.
Roth’s idea that brute force only leads to more brute force is most thoroughly explored in his 1998 directorial debut, The War Zone, in which a family takes revenge on an abusive parent. Roth says he took the job on Lie to Me in part so he could continue to make similarly dark, complex films.
"The kinds of films I want to direct you don’t get paid for — they’re obviously not commercial ventures necessarily," he says. "By the time I was through with [The War Zone], it was time to go back and make some money. Critically received is one thing, but a film about child abuse is not for everybody."
The actor doesn’t see a link between his early abuse and his career’s focus on victimization. But he does feel enough distance from it to draw an unusual comparison between directors and abusers.
"An abuser is a great director. You’ve got to keep your actors in line. If your actors break away and start improvising, you’re ending up in jail. Because as soon as they start to speak — as soon as they figure out that they can speak for themselves and that you can’t pull the strings — you’re done. It’s a very dangerous game," he said. "They have to manipulate their victim in such a way that the victims will keep a secret."
