061902 The Express

June 19, 2002
The Express
Diamond geezer Winstone aims to shine in his most regal movie role to date; It's good to be the King, admits Ray
by Gavin Docherty

They're the silver screen's new odd couple - Hackney's brooding hard man and the celebrated golden boy from Glenrothes. But Ray Winstone and Dougray Scott are the best of mates. "He's a Hibs supporter and I support West Ham, " explains Winstone. "I love anyone who supports the underdog."

The actors hit it off immediately when they first met while performing in stage play Green Fields Beyond, though they didn't have much fun on their latest screen project, Ripley's Game, which, with his characteristic bluntness, Winstone describes as "crazy, mental, mayhem". The movie is based on the third Patricia Highsmith thriller novel in a series of five, revolving round the amoral killer Tom Ripley, played two years ago by Matt Damon in The Talented Mr Ripley. This time John Malkovich headlines as Ripley, art connoisseur and genius of improvisational murder. Scorned at a local party by mortally ill ex-English patriot Jonathan Trevanny, played by Scott, sociopath Ripley devises a sinister game to repay the insult. Winstone plays the thuggish associate Reeves, Ripley's sometime partner in crime.

Filmed in Italy and Berlin, the project, which is set in modern-day Italy, is something that neither actor would want to do again in a hurry apparently. "It was weird because it was crewed by Italians, Germans and Americans, " continues Winstone. "Crazy, because you've got people who can't speak English getting relayed messages by Americans. It was like having two mobile phones against your ear all the time.

"We were on that picture for a couple of months and Dougray remains a mate of mine."

Winstone, star of gritty movies such as Nil By Mouth and Sexy Beast, arrives for the interview dressed sharp, like something out of Reservoir Dogs, and you're not actually sure whether he's in costume or not. He has a head shaped like a howitzer shell and no visible neckline. The son of a fruit and veg trader, the former boy boxing champion speaks in the kind of accent Guy Ritchie would die for.

For the record, in an hour spent with Winstone there were no punch ups, no reckless or abusive behaviour. In fact he is charming company from the moment he plops down splay legged on a chair and briefly stares at the shiny tops of his expensive shoes. "Shoes are the key to looking sharp, " he observes, "build it from the ground up."

BUT Ray's here not to talk cobblers, it's to expand on his new TV role as the put-upon London copper Lenny Milton in Granada's new two part crime thriller Lenny Blue, a spin-off from the successful Tough Love. It's about a detective who carried the can for the murder of his Met pal and is now gunning for the drug baron responsible.

"It's a very difficult subject to comment on. A cousin of mine years ago in Hackney died of heroin. I think we all know of someone like that."

There's a lot of Winstone in every role he plays. In Lenny Blue, for example, there is a visceral scene when he erupts like Vesuvius after coming home to find his attractive teenage daughter, coitus interruptus on the living room couch with a man twice her age. "I'd have done the same thing if it had happened to me, " he admits cheerfully. "Imagine coming home and finding a 45-year-old geezer on top of your daughter? You're not going to make him a cup of tea, are you?"

Now 45, Winstone is sticking two fingers up at the acting profession, the traditional enclave of the middle classes. "You get cast in the early days for what you are and what you do and then you choose the subjects you want to do when you're lucky enough to get that amount of work."

In the new Anthony Minghella Civil War film, Cold Mountain - in which he will star with Nicole Kidman, Jude Law and Renee Zellweger - Ray is playing a character from the deep south in Georgia, and provides an effective sound clip to prove he can do the accent convincingly.

"It's my first American character, " the actor says proudly. "Someone had the foresight to think I could do it."

He's being modest because Hollywood has been courting him regularly since his brilliant performance in Sexy Beast, in which he played retired safecracker Gal, recruited by brutal gangster Ben Kingsley for one last job.

"I'll go where the script is good, " he says. "I want to do good stuff. I've been offered three films in Hollywood, being the guy in the right hand side talking bollocks and I didn't want to do that. So I could have gone and, if I'm lucky enough to be offered a good script, I will go."

Meanwhile, having formed his own production company, Size Nine, one of the projects Winstone has in development is a film about the life of English poet, artist and mystic William Blake.

I was brought up listening to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, " he explains. "It's not a mainstream project, but nor was Nil By Mouth.

You don't start doing things because they're mainstream, you do it because you're interested."

On that note, he is giving his special attention to a new TV offer - playing Henry VIII in a new dramatisation by Alan Bleasdale.

"Henry! I don't even know what he talks like, " chuckles Winstone. "I know they say he was from Yorkshire, but..."

Pondering for a moment he adds:

"Me! Playing a king? I came out of Plaistow!"

Well, that's showbusiness - from Diamond Geezer to King. The boy's done good.

Lenny Blue on ITV July 1 and 2.

Ripley's Game is due for cinema release in October.