Shrugging off "The Son of Ken"

By Vicki Reid

 

Linus Roache was always going to attract attention. His father (aka Ken

Barlow) has one of the most recognisable faces on television and he

chose to follow him into an acting career. His star rose swiftly -he

has good looks and a rare ability -and the media quickly found him.

 

What they probably weren't counting on, however, was Roache himself.

His relationship with the Press has always been uneasy -who's going to

enjoy reading tales of their father's acrimonious marital split? And

Roache has shown an almost remarkable reluctance towards potential fame.

"It got to the stage," says the softly spoken 34-year-old, "that I felt

that I couldn't separate who I am as a person and what I do as an

actor."

 

His feelings of ambivalence have threatened his career. Each time of

success on a major level has beckoned, Roache has wilfully turned his

back and done a disappearing act. Cinema audiences first encountered

him in 1994, in Antonia Bird's moving and controversial Priest. His

portrayal of Father Greg, the troubled homosexual priest, had Hollywood

agents clamouring for his talent. Roache's response was to retreat to

India. Likewise a leading role in the BBC series Seaforth ended after

only 10 episodes (the BBC had planned a run of three years). The tabloids

loved that.

 

"I just felt I'd reached saturation point. Even though everybody was

saying what hot property I was, I wasn't ready to cash in on the

opportunities. I was intimidated by the whole thing. I felt like I was

complicating my life beyond belief."

 

Roache stepped out of his career for nearly three years. The irony is

that he's returned with a film that will have Hollywood agents excitedly

comparing him to Ralph Fiennes, and jumping straight back on the phones

again. Iain Softley's The Wings of The Dove, with Helena Bonham Carter

and Alison Elliot, is likely to acquire several Oscar nominations. As

the penniless journalist Merton Densher, forced to love a dying heiress

for the schemes of his lover (Bonham Carter), Roache plays a reluctant

hero -passive, and suffering for his confusion.

 

"I think I did a dangerous thing playing that role," he smiles, "it's

not your typical male heroic lead. I had been in that place myself, when

you're so confused you don't know what to choose so you just keep

going... you're allowing events to happen, not actually doing anything

about them, and then you resent the whole situation. I could relate to

that completely."

 

His whole career has been a struggle against links with his father. His

influence resonates throughout the conversation. Roache's initial

excitement at joining him, aged nine, in five episodes of Coronation

Street soon disintegrated into adolescent paranoia. "I hated all the

attention, I hated being singled out at school, 'Oh look, it's Ken

Barlow's son' -who'd want to grow up with that? I hated being convinced

that I only got into drama school because I was his son.

 

"And before you ask, no I don't resent him. He's been fantastically

supportive all the way. I think the only difference is that he's good

at the whole celebrity game."

 

But in his own way Roache is playing the game. The image he presents on

this blustery winter lunch-time, sitting in a leather armchair in the

comfortable surroundings of a hotel tucked away in Soho, is one of calm.

He looks at ease, maybe for the first time in a long while, with his

job and where the future may take him.

 

This new-found serenity, he claims, is due to the teachings of American

Guru Andrew Cohen. "I never thought I'd hear the truth pouring out of a

New Yorker, but there you go. I guess you never know where it's going

to come from."

 

He talks confidently of going into rehearsal in a few weeks for Katie

Mitchell's production of Uncle Vanya at the Young Vic. The days of

disillusionment, summed up as "grubbing around in the depths of my being

trying to find some feeling, and there was nothing there, I felt dry",

seem, thankfully, long gone.

 

Even the Press is dismissed with the benevolent: "You get misrepresented

sometimes, and other times don't." I think he surprised even himself when

he said that.

 

(From www.thisislondon.com)