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)