The Last Word: Ray Winstone

This is The Last Word. It’s our chance to take a bonafide legend and ask them about life, navigating the tricky waters of the entertainment biz and what they’ve got on the horizon. Up next, it’s legendary British actor Ray Winstone.

You’re back in The Gentlemen for season two. How did you bury the hatchet with Guy Ritchie in order to work together [the pair fell out over casting for 1998’s Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels]? 

Well, burying the hatchet makes us real men, doesn’t it? I’ve enjoyed every minute of it, and working with Guy. He’s a clever boy, you know, and there’s some wasted years, but hey, that’s life.  

Who’s the biggest gentleman you’ve ever met in your life?  

Oh god, there’s a few. Bobby Moore, Tom Courtenay, David Hemmings, Johnny Harris, who directed Jawbone. I could be here all day. You come across people in your life who are gentlemen and it doesn’t always mean they’re wearing a three-piece suit and shake your hand nicely. It’s something internal. They’ve got a sense of honour. And I’ve met plenty of those.  

You mentioned Bobby Moore. What was it like to know such a towering icon of British culture?  

I spoke to him a few times and the last was literally a week before he passed. He always had time for people and genuinely so. I grew up in the East End, and you had gangsters that you looked up to, quite wrongly in a lot of cases. And then someone from your manor comes along who is representing your area and your country with a sense of grace and honour. That changed everything for me, so I have to put Bobby as numero uno in terms of gentlemen. And I think Bobby would be quite happy with how England are doing at the moment.  

Which actor has made you feel like you have to up your game?  

It’s difficult because you don’t want to try and show nerves and you do what you do, and you don’t want to get into the same rhythm. But the one time where I’ve felt a bit awestruck, or so my kids tell me anyway, was [with] Michael Caine. The reason I was able to work in this industry was down to someone like Cainey and Albert Finney before him. We’ve worked together a few times, and I just liked listening to Michael talk and hearing his stories. He tells good stories. He has a way of making you sit back and go, ‘All right, let’s get it together.’ 

Is there a role that’s eluded you that you’d have quite liked to play?  

Yeah, and it’s something Nick Cave wrote. The Death of Bunny Munro. It’s on telly now and I’m yet to watch it, but I first looked at it over 20 years ago when I finished The Proposition, which Nick wrote. It never happened because the director John Hillcoat was off to make The Road, but I really wanted to do it. I’ve heard the TV show is really good, and I want to see how Matt Smith has done it.  

You’ve worked with Spielberg and George Lucas. Is it the same principle as working with any other director?  

With them, you’re talking about geniuses. It’s simple things like watching them move the camera. With Spielberg, he doesn’t do it the same with every film, and he lets the camera movement tell the story and you learnt that because people like him and [Martin] Scorsese love having the actors standing behind them on the playback and seeing how it will take you into the next moment. It’s quite genius, really.  

What was it like working with Scorsese on The Departed? 

Well, Marty’s all over the place, and I think I upset him at some point because English humour doesn’t always translate in the way you hope. 

What did you say? 

I was leaving the set after I’d finished, and he said, “Hey, Ray, you’re leaving just when I’m beginning to understand you.” I thought that was a bit of a low blow, so I just came back with “I’ll see you at the reshoots, Martin.” I think that went down like a fucking lead balloon, so that was the end of that. The end of a beautiful relationship!  

What was the last thing that scared you?  

I’ll tell you what it was. My mother-in-law is 93, nearly 94, and I love her to pieces. She went to the doctor’s for a check, but she’s in really good fettle. I was shooting in Budapest recently and got a call to say she’d been knocked over in the doctor’s car park by another old lady – who shouldn’t have been driving, bless her. My wife and her sister were there, and she’d been banged up in the air, and you think, ‘Well, that’s it, finito.’ It was just bruises and she’s right as rain, but it frightened the life out of me. Because you think, ‘What a fucking way to go.’ To get to that age and then go out hit by a fucking car in a doctor’s car park. Unbelievable. They don’t make people like that anymore.  

And finally, the ultimate choice: you win your first Oscar in the next five years, or West Ham have an ultimate resurgence and win the Champions League. Which is it?  

Champions League. Without a shadow of a doubt. An Oscar? Who wants a little gold statue you can put on the side to tell you you’ve done a really good job? But West Ham winning the Champions League? Oh!  

Season Two of The Gentlemen arrives on Netflix on September 3.

Taken from the August/September issue of Rolling Stone UK, out now. Order your copy here.