=oz oz fan well as the adrenalin rush of playing the villain in next summer's "The Incredi- ble Hulk " "I'm interested in acting again." ad- mits the 46-year-old father of two "I lost my interest for a long time I got bored." Roth has made some 60 rnovies since breaking out via British TV in the mid-'80s and in 1990's Robert Altman- directed'anncent & Theo " Since then, his caeer's been highlighted by collabo- rations with great directors like Altman, Quentin Tarantino (on "Reservoir Dogs" and "Pulp Fiction"), WoodyAllen ("Ev- eryone Says I Love You") and John Sayles ('Silver CitJ/'), and appearanc- es in notable indies like "Rosencrantz & Gildenstern Are Dead," "Jumpin at the Boneyard" and "Little Odessa " He famously had to tum down the role of Snape in the "Harry Potter" movies because of a scheduling conflict with Tim Bulton's "Planet of the Apes" re- make, in which he played a sort-of simian version of Dick Cheney.</p><p> But doing'Youth," and play- ing a role so far out of his comfort zone for yet another esteemed filrnmak- erjuiced Roth again "Playing someone who was not me and having Francis push me in all these different directions was very tantaliz- ing," says Roth, a native of London "That woke me up a bit.</p><p> I'd spoken to RayWmtone about it It happened to him He gave up actingyears andyears and years ago.</p><p> He quit and went back to work in whatever he was doing ThenIim Roth is feeling reinvigorated about acting COREY SIPKIN/DAILY NEWS he got his buz back He swore to me I would, too, "And he was right You just have to wait around long enough and then you'll get it back " Roth relishes lhe challenges again. and says he had a blast playing an evil mutant, The Abomination, in the Maruel film "reboot" of "The Hulk" (which will star Edward Norton as Bruce Banner) "lt was crzy, crazy," says Roth of mak- ing the comic book blockbuster in Toronto md Brzil "They did want to make a kid's action movie - gromup, but also for kids Mywhole concem was that my kids would like it. because I made it for them." One film of Roth's his kids won't be seeing anytime soon is Geman wit- \ er-director Michael Haneke's rrp. coming "Funny Games," a shot by-shot remake of Haneke's own 1997 feature in which two psychotics hold a fami- ly hostage and torture them Initially, Roth didn't want to do the film, which co-stars Naomi Watts. because he was disturbed by the idea it might be sheer exploitation "I thought it would be difficult, but a very worthwhi.le character to play," says Roth He's no sffilgerto thuggish roles, most notably his diner robber in "R{p Fiction " "I'd been the torturer, the one that in- flicts And I thought itwould be a very good thing for me to feel what it's like to be in a room and have that happen to me And it ws very good, it helped me as an actor no end.</p><p> But I don't ever want to go back there Not to that extreme ever again " aDsy NTTcHAEL GrLTz olis,' he said the script whipped him," says Roth, who plays an elderly linguisticsprofessor who is struck by lightning and miraculously finds himself getting younger and younger, and developing remarkable - even magical - mental md psychic powers He even gets a second chance at choosing true love over his career But Coppola wasn't the only one rejuvenated bv this fountain of 'Youth." Roth says he shook oft years of boredom and lethargy about acting thanks to this role, in which he ages from 20 to l0l, as
