With over a quarter of a century in the business, actor Ray Winstone has achieved a CV which would leave any board-treader salivating from their seats. It’s certainly not to be sniffed at. In this one-off series of interviews, Winstone gives t5m some of his best bits to camera and takes us on a stroll down memory lane.
Growing up in London’s Hackney, the cinema always played a pivotal role in Winstone’s life and it was a place of bonding for him and his father who often worked unsociable hours as a market trader. ‘My dad used to pick me up on a Wednesday afternoon after school when I was a kid. There was many a time when we would sit through the film twice because you could do in those days.’ Ray’s lovable relationship with his father shines through as he tells his anecdotes in his tongue-in-cheek way which is a Winstone trademark.
In his own words, he was not ‘good enough’ to be a boxer but likens the instinct he felt when stepping in the ring and seeing his opponent, to the sense you get when you meet the person you’ll be working with on a script. ‘When you click into someone and you get into their heart and their soul, it’s not about who’s good and who’s bad because everyone becomes good’.
As on the big screen, Winstone effortlessly captivates the attention of the audience and touches on more tales from his trove of working with Ben Kingsley on the phenomenal British film Sexy Beast. ‘I liked working with Ben. Ben is one of those guys where it’s about the scene, you know? I had to play my part in the scene to make his part work and likewise the other way, I had to be weak, I am getting beat up by Ghandi afterall.’ And in his own words it was Ben who ”made the film’.
