LICENCE TO CHANGE: DALTON PLAYS THE FLIP SIDE OF 007 IN TRILLER ABOUT A MASTER CRIMINAL.

     

Timothy Dalton's limpid green eyes are blazing with emotion.

"Movies are getting more and more simplistic, don't you think?" he asks in his mellifluous voice. "When you look at the record books and you look at the kind of movies they were making, they get better, and more of them, the further back you go in time. The kind of movies we grew up with are disappearing."

Part of the reason films are becoming more simplistic, Dalton believes, is that filmmakers play down to their audiences. "Once you play down to an audience, what do you do next year?" says the Welsh actor. "You've established a standard down. So you play down again. We always wanted to go see grown-up movies, the ones we weren't supposed to understand. When you're given a problem in a piece of work, something you do not understand, that's part of the drama. That's why you turn the page to find out."

Framed, Dalton's latest project, is definitely a page-turner. Written by Lynda La Plante of 'Prime Suspect' fame, that taut thriller finds Dalton playing the dashing Eddie Myers, a British "supergrass" - a master criminal turned police informer.

Supposedly dead, Myers actually is living the good life in Spain. Even with a new face and name - Phillip Von Joel - he's spotted by an ambitious young police officer (David Morrissey) on vacation. Once Myers is captured and extradited back to London, Myers and the young officer become involved in an intricate game of cat and mouse.

"I was very impressed with her script," Dalton says, lighting up another cigarette. "I read a lot of scripts. It's one of a handful that I loved the most. It's rare these days. What's distressing is the ones you do think are great, you don't get offered. The ones you do get offered are the ones that you don't want to do. So it's wonderful when something comes along you do want to do."

An actor can only give a great performance if the script is equally great, Dalton says. "If you get a good script, you stand a chance of giving a great performance. If you get a mediocre script, you are spending more of your energy trying to make it work. If it's well-written, it's full of richness and possibilities. Your job then becomes a joy. The problem you then face is to try and pull out the possibilities and reveal (them) in a way that's interesting."

Dalton was fascinated with Myers. But not for the obvious reasons. "I'm sure most guys, if you ask them if they would like to fantasize about pulling off the most wonderful robbery, they would all say yes," Dalton says. "I don't know about the ladies. We think of how to rob Fort Knox or something and get away with it. Of course, we don't do it. So the criminal mentality is very fascinating."

Even more so because Dalton believes the criminal mentality is exactly the same as the hero's. In fact, there's really not much difference between Myers and James Bond. "What do you have to be to be a top criminal? You have to be ruthless. You have to have a lot of courage. You have to be intelligent. You have to have imagination. Those are the qualities you give to heroes or the military or leaders of industry."

Dalton refuses to believe a story he heard earlier in the day from an A&E publicist. Supposedly, when the real Eddie Myers had plastic surgery, he had his new face fashioned to resemble Dalton's.

"I don't believe that for a second," he says, laughing. "If I was a criminal on the run, I'm sure I'd try to get some plastic surgery. But I think it's idiotic to suggest he wanted to look like me. It would be a very dumb move. Why make yourself look like someone who is relatively well-known - who is playing James Bond? In truth, he's probably 5 foot 3 and fat."

Los Angeles Times,  1993

  ***********************************

"I wanted to see where I could take the role. One of the things my character, Phillip Van Joel, is trying to do with this young policeman is find any way into him, just get inside the guy. It's actually, literally, a seduction, and a very dangerous one, because Van Joel knows if he doesn't succeed and has to go to jail, he'll be killed. "Policeman are poor. They're ordinary kids growing up and they don't have any money. The ones I talked to said the temptation to take money, a bribe, or stolen goods is enormous. Like the rest of us, they live in a world where television tells them what kind of house to own and car to buy. Most people simply can't afford it." (Timothy Dalton, 'Arts and Entertainment' September 1993)