Linus Roache glides into success with TV, film, and stage credits

BILL FARK
Staff Writer
North County Times 1997

Actor Linus Roache fares better on-screen than in person, which showed in his recent 
visit to San Diego to promote his new film, "The Wings of the Dove," for which he has 
received great reviews.

First, his flight was canceled and he arrived two hours late, which caused a rapid revision 
of his schedule. And during a short recess between interviews and TV appearances, he got 
locked out of his hotel room.

"This happens to me in England, too," he said while waiting in the hall. "But not in Bosnia, 
from where I've just returned after shooting a movie for HBO. Maybe this is a toll we pay for 
advanced technology." 
Linus Roache stars in "The Wings of the Dove" with Alison Elliott and 
Helena Bonham Carter. 

The young actor has benefited from film technology, however. He made an outstanding 
film debut playing the title role in Antonia Bird's award-winning "Priest." Earlier 
that same year, he landed the lead role in the TV drama "Seaforth" for the BBC.

Roache is quite enthusiastic about "The Wings of the Dove," in which he plays a man 
attracted to and desired by two women. Although the film focuses on the females, 
Roache makes a solid contribution to the drama.

He identified with the role, he said, even though the story is set in 1910 and concerns 
upper-middle-class society in London. "I actually brought something to the role from 
my own experience. Not the same as Merton's, but most men, I believe, have been 
somewhere in a situation when they are torn between two choices - often between two women.

"Yes, I know that scene, too. No one, however, as gorgeous or exciting as Helena Bonham Carter 
and Alison Elliott. The triangle is very involving. (It's) real. It has to do with deception, 
and Merton Densher, my character, has to decide just how far he is willing to go in it."

"The Wings of the Dove," based on the Henry James' novel of the same title, is about love, 
lust and possessiveness in a small group where income and social standing are the 
primary issues. Kate Croy (Carter), groomed to marry a rich man, loves Densher (Roache), 
a penniless journalist.

Wanting both love and money, Kate concocts a scheme involving Densher and American heiress 
Millie Theale. When it does not work out as expected, Kate is in danger of losing everything.

His role, Roache said, differs greatly from what he has played before. "I had done very 
little in films or TV before 'Priest.' Since then I've played van Gogh, (performed in) 
'Keeping Tom Nice' and on the TV series 'Seaforth,' all on BBC."

Roache has a large body of work in theater, playing everywhere from the Royal Court Theatre 
in Kensington, which specializes in new plays and avant-garde, to the Royal National and 
the Royal Shakespeare companies. The plays and his roles have been similarly varied: 
"Grease," Edgar in "King Lear" and the king in "Richard II."

He liked "The Wings of the Dove," Roache said, for its subtleties. "It deals in depth with 
the dilemmas that the characters are in, rather than coming up with glib answers. Densher 
is caught up in a situation that he could get out of at any point, but he just gets swept 
away, bit by bit. There's something incredibly painful in that."

Roache said he has no burning ambition to play specific roles. "I don't have those desires 
anymore. I wanted desperately to play Richard II, and I did. Now I want to do everything: 
in the West End (of Broadway), on TV, films, radio, Shakespeare, contemporary authors. 
Mostly I want to keep on working with good people and doing the best I can."