Tim Roth is, for man, an easy sell. If you’re trying to decide what movie to watch and Roth is in it, then you know that you can count on him to bring an amazing performance to it. He’s so good at crafting characters that are, seemingly, so different from who he is and we love to watch him work. It is, for many reasons, why I was interested in Punch in the first place.
I came for Roth but I stayed for the brilliant performance by Jordan Oosterhof. The movie is about a young boxer who is trying to unpack his own sexuality while dealing with his father and his alcoholism. There’s a lot working against Jim (Oosterhof) as he navigates his feelings for Whetu (Conan Hayes) but the movie itself is about embracing who you are and sharing that love with those who love you.
I was lucky enough to speak with Tim Roth and Jordan Oosterhof for the release of the film and asked them both about what drew them to the project and made them want to tell this story, beautifully written and directed by Welby Ings.
“For me, the main thing that I love about the film is the sort of universal theme of fighting to find your place,” Oosterhof said. “Anyone can understand, like let’s say being born, they feel in the wrong family that doesn’t sort of get them or living in the wrong small town and feeling sort of cloistered by that sort of oppressive mentality. And I think that what we see in the film is these two young men fighting for that. to fight to be who they truly are. And I think that no matter who you are, whether you are a boxer, whatever, I think you can take something away from that.”
And for Roth, his reasoning was similar. “I mean I basically what he said,” Roth said. “I do think that it’s really good to see the examination of, I mean his character is in hiding. And joining in the persecution, in a sense of homosexuality.”
You can see our full interview here:
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You can rent Punch now on Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and more.
(Featured image: Vendetta Films)
