Tim Roth on playing Sepp Blatter in United Passions: 'The film is awful. I hated doing it'
'I had two kids in college so I had to make a decision and it was probably poorly judged'
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When interviewed by The Independent earlier this month, Tim Roth avoided questions surrounding his controversial role as Sepp Blatter in United Passions.
“Really, you want to go down the Fifa route? I know your game – my dad used to do your game. Why would you ask that question?” he said at the time when questioned about the film.
With a little persuasion, The Hateful Eight actor exclaimed that it was not because of the money, saying the filmmakers could have made a good film if they had “cut 20 minutes out”.
Conversely, in an open AMA on Reddit, the actor admitted the film is awful (although he hasn’t seen it), he hated doing it and that he made the decision to play Blatter in order to help his kids who were in college.
Roth said: “The film is awful (can't say that because I haven't seen it) I hated doing it, it was the wrong film but for the right reasons.
“I had two kids in college so I had to make a decision and it was probably poorly judged, but once you make that decision you have to follow through. It's a hard road, being in something you don't want to do, but I'm glad I did it for my family.”
The 54-year-old went on to speak about his thoughts on corruption within Fifa, two days before it was announced that Blatter would be suspended from all football-related activities for eight years.
“As for Fifa I thought the movie would be much more about the corruption of this guy at first. I don't know if he is going to go down, he seems to have survived everything that has been thrown at him.
“There doesn't seem to be any way you can get to them because of all those big corporations behind him. It looks the most promising though now though, it looks like he is a on a back foot now because he looks more exposed then he has ever been in the past.”
The Hateful Eight is out 8 January.
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