Timothy Leonard Spall was born on February 27, 1957 and grew up in London in a modest family. His father worked at the post office and his mother was a hairdresser. His passion for acting captured him since childhood, when he joined the troupe of the National Youth Theatre. He graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, later becoming an Associate Member. Currently enjoying an impressive portfolio of over 150 appearances on the small and big screen, Spall rose to domestic film fame playing Barry Spencer Taylor in the tragi-comedy Auf Wiedersehen, Pet and worldwide for the role of the wizard Peter Pettigrew from the Harry Potter series. Queen Elizabeth II made him an Officer of the Order of the British Empire.
You are going to receive a lifetime achievement award at TIFF and your career spans over more than 40 years and 150 roles. Is there any character that you still feel connected to?
All of them. They're always hard to let go when you're finished. Some took longer to do, so I think Mr. Turner is a big thing cause that took a long time and it's the process. When you work with Mike Leigh you co-create the character, so it's your creation as well, you're not interpreting the script or making it. Even in some of the things that weren't successful, I always try and make sure that I bring everything I can to this character. Some work better than others and some get better received, but they all feel like part of the family.
Northern Comfort, a film you star in, will be screened at TIFF. What, in this production, appealed to you?
Well, it made me laugh. And it made me feel uncomfortable. And it made me care for the characters when I read the script. It takes a lot to make me laugh. I hope whether the audience see it they laugh. It's a black comedy. It's very much my taste. I just like seeing people in extreme situations. What is both difficult and funny at the same time is like life, really. Life is a mixture of the tragic and the comic.
In 1996, you were diagnosed with leukaemia, but it doesn't seem like you've ever stopped working, at least not for a long time. How did you find the strength to keep acting?
Well, I've got better. It was good not to die. And it was good when I didn't die to come back. Just before I got that disease, I did Secrets and Lies, which was a film I did with Mike Leigh and was a huge success when I was in hospital and getting better. It won the Palme d’Or. It was one of his most successful films. It got a lot of notice. When I recovered, not only was I still alive, I had a really good film career waiting for me to start, it established me in a different way. It was a mixed bag. I got ill, but when I came back, things were looking up. So it was good.
Did it affect the way you were acting? The way you view your characters?
I think it gives you another layer to draw upon when you've experienced something that’s kind of extreme. It makes you understand more sympathetically. It gives you a well of depth and another chunk of experience and then you understand it more, so you don't have to act it so much.
You told me about Mike Leigh. You've collaborated on a number of films. So how did you two meet? And how did the relationship evolve over time?
We first met in 1981, we did television. We worked together for the BBC, we did a BBC drama. He just asked to see me and I auditioned for it. Then he offered me the part. That was in 1981 and the last film I did with him was in 2013. It's a long period. And it’s one of my prized associations, that collaboration with him. It's a big deal for me. And they're all very different, the projects, he's a genius, in his own field. It's a technique he's created. And it's great to be a part of that world, a part of his team. I'm very, very pleased I've been a part of that.
The younger audiences know you from Harry Potter. How was the experience of playing in a film series different from other projects?
Well, each one of those films took a long time, because we spent a lot of time making them. That's why they're so good. That's why they look so interesting because each one is meticulously made. You come in for a day here. Then you wait six weeks. Sometimes with one of the scenes, we shot part of the scene, because the rest of it had to be on another set which was in another studio. So we had to pause that for four weeks later, carry on the scene where we left it off in another part. So it's strange. It's an interesting thing, cause it's one of the smallest parts I've played, but it's the one I'm most known for. And considering it's a small role, people seem to remember it. I don't know why, I suppose it's because he's instrumental in the in the plot, isn't he? He cures Harry's father. He becomes Lord Voldemort's servant and cooks him up and puts him in his stew and he's an interesting character and also, he's got a bit of texture, it's both evil and kind of almost has the chance of redemption, but not, cause he's vulnerable and horrible at the same time.
He’s a complex character.
Yes, he’s complex. Somebody who had to survive through bad, bad deeds.
And how did it affect your career afterward?
It just makes people know who you are and they say ‘ohh that guy from Harry Potter’. He puts another little mark. And it was great to work with Alfonso Cuarón and Mike Newell. And then David Yates, I mean, great directors. And to work that first scene, that first scene I did in Harry Potter, that was with Gary Oldman, David Thewlis and Alan Rickman, God rest his soul. And these are three people that we're all about the same age. We've all come up together through the theatre. That was fantastic to be in that scene with those guys that I've known all these years, all playing these characters. Then go in the set and get your makeup there. Be some British icon. Having a pipe all screwed in or a pair of funny ears put on. And all these people, these fantastic actors that you've worked with and admired all your life: Maggie Smith, Emma Thompson, all these people turning up, fantastic! And I know them all. So it's great, you know it's like ‘ohh... Hello, how are you, John Hurt?” Fantastic. The cast is amazing.
I read a lot of interesting quotes by you in other interviews and I find that you have a very fascinating philosophy of life. Can you tell us a little bit of what guides you through your life and career?
The thing about this job is that it's a vocation, it's a calling. It almost chooses you. And then there's nothing you can do about it. It's like a more of an affliction than a choice. So, to have that affliction and then to be able to fulfil it and exercise it. And the privilege of working on these great stories that people really like and that they actually are prepared to take the money they earn out of their pocket, to go and see them. That's a wonderful thing, and the power of storytelling is in everything that we do in everyday life. What we choose, our clothes, what we wear. It's always a story about ourselves. We're telling our story about ourselves all the time. So, to be in the storytelling business is fantastic. And to be paid for it, to make a living from, it's even better. It has its ups and downs. You get congratulations, but you also get a lot of critics saying horrible things about you and so on and so forth. You also have to put up with that.
But it’s the stories that are important. The fact people who aren’t professionals, who don't have this thing to do, just like it. Sometimes it’s even entertaining and makes people feel better or makes them laugh. Sometimes you'd be in a position where you teach them something, they understand something through the story. Or through what you do with the character. To achieve something that might trigger something and go actually: oh God, I see what that is. That's a real privilege, and that's my job to try and do that. And the other thing is just to be kind to people. Make sure that your ego is always under control and that your ego as an actor is not to make you look good. Just to make the character look good. And if you make the character look good, you're going to look alright as well.