Warning: This content contains references to sexual abuse and may be triggering for some readers.
Tim Roth has revealed that both he and his father were abused by his grandfather as children.
The 55-year-old actor was speaking to The Guardian on Sunday the about his role as a serial killer in the new BBC drama Rillington Place when he aired part of his painful past.
Talking about his journalist father, Ernie Smith, who grew up dirt poor and quit a life in politics because of the sex scandals that appalled him, the Pulp Fiction actor said:
“He was an abused kid, my dad, and it was a terrible childhood that he had, and he took that s–t seriously.”
“He was a damaged soul. I loved him. He was funnier than f—,” Roth said of his dad. “He was abused. And I was abused. But I was not abused by him. I was abused by his abuser.”
Tim Roth with his Grace of Monaco co-star, Nicole Kidman. PHOTO: Getty.
Tim has opened up about the abuse he suffered during his childhood but never reveled the identity of his abuser.
He previously explained: “It happened during my childhood up to my early teens and although I’m not going to say who it was, he’s long gone now – and I hasten to add it wasn’t my father or mother.”
But this time when asked by The Guardian’s Rory Carroll, the Grace of Monaco star spoke with candour when asked if his abuser was his dad’s dad, or Roth’s grandfather, the actor answered, “Yeah. It was his father. He was a f–king rapist. But nobody had the language. Nobody knew what to do. That’s why I made The War Zone.”
The War Zone, Roth’s 1999 directorial debut, features a confronting scene where a young woman in the film is raped by her father – another example of how Tim explores dysfunction in many of his roles.
The Oscar-nominated actor has played many villains, but he says he’s gotten better at separating the challenges that those troubled characters bring to his real life.
“Now, it’s all on computer, so I can just close it and it all goes away. It doesn’t affect me. I don’t carry my work around with me at all,” Roth said.
“When you’re preparing is when it’s difficult. But once you start, it’s easy to switch it all off…Have a good shower, move on.”
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