August 08, 2002
"RFK," which airs Sunday, Aug. 25, at 8 p.m. on FX, is the story of ROBERT F. KENNEDY's
personal and political transformation during the final five years of his life.
The movie opens in 1963 with the assassination of JOHN F. KENNEDY and winds up
with Bobby's murder on June 6, 1968.
"The Gathering Storm"'s LINUS ROACHE stars as the Camelot heir in his struggle
to step out of his brother's shadow and forge his own identity.
ET spoke with the British actor on his transition from attorney general to
U.S. senator to the man who might have become president in 1968.
ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT: What preconceptions did you have of RFK that were
changed by the script ?
LINUS ROACHE: The more I worked on the film, the more I loved him as a man.
I think he found conscience. I think he found it for real. He was more than
a political animal in that sense. He was a humanitarian in the greatest sense
of the word, and a voice we would like to hear today.
The more I read about him, the more I heard him, the more I connected with him.
I think he was so human in the way he presented his arguments. Yet he was always
pushing against his own inertia, and he really meant it when he wanted things
to change. People connected with that because he represented change and he meant it.
ET: Can you talk a little bit about your preparation for this role ?
LINUS: To begin with [I was] overwhelmed by the prospect of playing a man who
I admired so much. I started reading, then listening, and watching, watching,
watching. Then I started doing it. I had this intuitive love for him, which is
not personal. I think anybody who focuses on RFK feels the same thing. He represented
something for everybody. He became a voice for all of us. So, I fell in love with
that. Also, he is so many things. [You can't] nail him down and say he is this or
that. He is all of it. He was the hard-nosed, ruthless man, but he also had a big heart.
In terms of my preparation, what I had to go through every day, I felt like
I was climbing a mountain just to play him. So I was pushing my own edge. In
that way, that's how I approached the whole role.
ET: Another of your recent notable roles was in the Emmy-nominated
"The Gathering Storm." In it you played another character dealing with a
moral dilemma. Do you see parallels between the two men ?
LINUS: Not at all. RALPH WIGRAM went out and committed suicide. Understandable,
but Bobby Kennedy would never have done such a thing. He would never back down.
No matter what the odds were, you knew he would keep going because he had to.
ET: How old were you when RFK was killed ?
LINUS: I was four when he was killed, and I knew very little about him.
There's virtually no connection until this movie. It's always Jack you hear about,
and see in the big TV dramas, and then you see a bit of Bobby. I didn't have a sense
of who he was -- that's why this is an amazing journey to go on.
ET: What were some of the things you read that really helped you get a sense of
the character ?
LINUS: I read the book that the writer based his script on, EVAN THOMAS' Robert
Kennedy: His Life, which is probably the most psychological. I did most of my
research through audio and visual. I just watched and watched and watched.
ET: Was there some particular piece of film that made you say, "I really get this guy"?
LINUS: There's two. There's the "Robert F. Kennedy: A Memoir." There is actually
one that was made for HBO called, "Bobby Kennedy: In His Own Words," which is
very clever, because it uses his own words to narrate his life story. There is
some amazing stock footage available of him as a senator, with TEDDY KENNEDY,
and out with his kids.
ET: How intimidating is it when you are trying to replicate a speech that
you know is on film. How close to doing it exactly right did you try to get ?
LINUS: I took different things from different speeches, but with the MARTIN
LUTHER KING speech I went for accuracy. I haven't actually seen it, but I
hear it is pretty close. With the others, I listened to get the feeling, but I
let them play within the drama of the film and didn't worry about it.
ET: Do you think this film shows more the personal Bobby than the political Bobby ?
LINUS: It is the personal Bobby in the sense that it really is about how he
finds his voice. It takes you on his emotional journey, because he didn't have
any idea what he could or should do -- what his potential was. So it is a personal
journey. But I liked it because it is not like so many projects about the Kennedy's
sex lives -- the salacious side. This is a mature film about big political issues,
but it is a personal journey through them.