RadioTimes.com<\/a>, Roache revealed that both he and Styles made sure their performances were unique rather than simply imitations of each other since they\u2019re \u201cnot really the same people\u201d after 40 years of heartache and repression.<\/p>\n\u201cI don\u2019t think either of us wanted to inhibit the other,\u201d he said. \u201cHe [Styles] carries the weight of the movie, the younger characters are predominantly the story. So it really was a case of just letting them do what they\u2019re going to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I loved about Harry\u2019s performance is he brings a lot of intelligence but just interest and the sense of wonder and almost innocence and so although I\u2019m playing the repressed version of that, I kind of held that as my truth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roache added that he was \u201cgenuinely a big admirer\u201d of his co-star and praised him for branching out into acting.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he\u2019s a super-talented individual, not just as a musician,\u201d he said. \u201cHe\u2019s become quite a figure for us all as an expression of being yourself. He seems to have done what very few people can do in life, which is actually be himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I admire him a lot. And I love the fact that he\u2019s branching out into acting and I think he does a wonderful job in this.\u201d<\/p>
Over his career, Roache has worked with some of the biggest names in the industry \u2013 from Angelia Jolie and Vin Deisel to Christian Bale and Albert Finney. But he said that he hasn\u2019t seen anything like the hysteria and intrigue surrounding Styles.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a massive roar from the crowd\u201d, he said of the moment Harry Styles stepped onto the red carpet for the movie\u2019s World premiere at Toronto International Film Festival. \u201cEverybody was deafened by it and some people said it was like Beatlemania all over again. Even Brad Pitt didn\u2019t get that response!\u201d<\/p>\n
Based on the 2012 Bethan Roberts novel of the same name, My Policeman opens in \u201990s Brighton, when Patrick Hazlewood (Rupert Everett) is brought to a seaside home to be looked after by Marion (Gina McKee) and her husband Tom (Roache) \u2013 with whom he had an affair 40 years earlier.<\/p>\n
The film shifts from the \u201950s to the \u201990s to explore this love triangle and the effects that repressed love can have on an individual, and Roache said he was instantly drawn to the character when he received the script from director Michael Grandage.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a really beautiful, complex story of love, loss and regret and I love stories that span big periods of time where you feel like a life has been lived,\u201d he said. \u201cSo the opportunity to tell the story of the 1950s and the love triangle and then see the aftermath in the 1990s gives the film a lot of depth and a lot of humanity we can really relate to.\u201d<\/p>\n
To prepare for the role, and get into the mindset of his character, Roache wrote little backstories for Tom\u2019s life in the \u201990s, which involved fictionalising Tom\u2019s daily routine, including what pub he went to and how many friends he had.<\/p>\n