TIM ROTH - ROTH'S LETTER LEADS HIM TO HERO COPPOLA

Movie star TIM ROTH's career has come full circle - he's just wrapped a new movie with FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA, who he wrote to asking for work as a teenager. The then-naive actor had no idea how wannabes went about nailing parts in Hollywood films and simply wrote to four of his favourite moviemakers, asking them to consider him for roles. He recalls, "I was around the age of 17 or 18 and I didn't know about the process of how you go about getting an agent... I decided to write to a group of directors - (Stanley) Kubrick, (Martin) Scorsese, (Francois) Truffaut and Coppola. "I wrote, 'Dear Mr. Coppola, I really like your movies. If ever you need an English actor, I'm your man.' Years later, Coppola considered casting Roth in his adaptation of Jack Kerouac's On The Road - and reminded the Brit of the letter he'd sent. Roth adds, "He said, 'I've got something to show you,' and he brought out this letter and it was written in biro and it was an amazing thing. "He said, 'I keep everything,' and it really meant something to him." The On The Road film failed to materialise but Coppola called on Roth again for his new movie Youth Without Youth.