Tim and Vincent : Roth Shrugs Off Praise for His Portrayal of Van Gogh

Armed with healthy skepticism of the praise being heaped upon him, actor Tim Roth is as rare and refreshing a presence in Southern California as is clean air.

The irreverent Roth, who plays a fiery Vincent van Gogh in Robert Altman’s “Vincent and Theo,” is dressed in a T-shirt that proclaims him “Well Red.” The 29-year-old British actor recounts how he was thrown out of a bar at his New York hotel because he was improperly dressed and how he needed to borrow a suit for an East Coast screening of “Vincent and Theo.”

Although the skinny, sandy-haired Roth doesn’t much look like Van Gogh, “He became the character,” Altman said.

“He’s as good a film actor as I’ve ever worked with,” said Altman, who has directed Warren Beatty, Robert Duvall, Keith Carradine and Tom Conti, among others.

While he’s not without an ego (Altman says Roth can be difficult on the set), Roth is uncomfortable accepting praise for his work. Although he wants to be a part of the American film scene, he’s hardly in awe of the local industry or himself.

“It gets silly,” the lightly freckled actor said. “I’m compared to (Al) Pacino and (Dustin) Hoffman. What does it mean? I just think it’s safe journalism.

“I treat it all with a large bucket of salt. There’s no guarantee of any of this. You come here, and people treat you with kid gloves, very nicely. And then they forget about you because the next person is in town. It’s a cutthroat business and has nothing to do with art at all.”

Art, at least, has much to do with “Vincent and Theo.” The intense film chronicles the emotional interdependence of the Dutch artist and his younger brother, Theo (Paul Rhys), an art dealer.

Although everybody knows something about Vincent van Gogh--no earlobe, liked sunflowers, had a beard--Roth says the artist’s life is mysterious, and there’s not much point doing a lot of research, either.

“I read his letters and looked at the paintings. That’s it,” said Roth, a former art student.

“There are thousands of books you could read, but they’re all written by academics and intellectuals. It’s a tricky one. Everyone wants him to have been mad. And I don’t know that he really was. Would you lock him up today? What would be the attitude today? Tell him not to be naughty and put him on welfare? Take away his government funding?”

As an actor, Roth has had his share of rejection, but obviously far less than Van Gogh.

“He did believe, and carried on being rejected. And that’s the self-abuse thing: eating paint, drinking turpentine and cutting off his earlobe. That’s all part of the rejection. The only thing as an actor that you are aware of--and certainly not to the extent that he was--is the rejection. You are aware of being rejected, either when you’ve done something bad by the audience or by people who, when you think you can do a part, say, ‘No.’ ”

Van Gogh, Roth said, was someone who had interested him since he was in art school. “He was my father’s hero. My father used to paint and draw and was also a journalist. He had a rough life, too.”