Guy Ritchie's latest lead was excited to team up with legendary hardman, and even more so, to see a different side to him in the new series. Report by Nelsonj. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00 Theo mate, this is good innit? It's good. I thought the Deltamon movie was probably
00:07 the best thing that Guy had done for a little bit. Really, really enjoyed that and I was
00:12 fascinated to see how it was going to transfer onto TV. They gave me four episodes but it
00:19 goes one, two, three, six. But it was so good that by the time I got to six whilst I was
00:24 supposed to watch it to see some more performances I was skimming through because I didn't want
00:28 to ruin the story for myself. I binged it out. I think it's brilliant. Have you seen
00:32 it yet? I have, I've seen it lots of times. So I wondered when that clicks for you as
00:38 an actor, when you actually know, oh thank god this is done alright. You don't. That's
00:44 one thing I've learned. You never know. Because it's hard to tell I think, with this I was
00:50 pretty close to it. It was a bit of an odyssey, it was a long filming process. Guy was a bit
00:57 of a, Guy was definitely all over it but he directed the first two. But maintaining
01:02 his style without making a pastiche of him, making sure the DNA was through there but
01:09 it had its own identity was a journey. So being that close to it I think it's hard for
01:17 an actor to tell how it's, honestly how it's going to be the ultimate product in a way.
01:24 But obviously we're pleased how it came out but it was something that I was fascinated
01:30 to do because like you I really enjoyed the movie but this is quite different story wise.
01:36 What to me was always fascinating was the idea of high society, dukedom, aristocracy,
01:43 a world which I know nothing about in reality mixed with criminal underworld. And the fun
01:50 of that, the kind of madness of that. But then not to be too pretentious what that says
01:56 about British society. We're kind of, the empire is dying or it's been dead for a long
02:02 time but it still plays in our minds, class plays in our minds. And this idea of the aristocracy
02:09 or the original gangsters is a fun one. They set up a system of wealth that everyone inherits
02:17 for centuries to come and that was intriguing to me.
02:21 What's it like being in the eye of the storm when Richie's doing the thing he does best
02:26 in a way? As you say he only did the first two episodes directing but he's kind of...
02:30 Oh he's been through it definitely.
02:31 Voices all the way through it.
02:33 All the way through. It's delightful and insane at the same time I'd say. You know he's got
02:42 a, he's so seminal in terms of his voice in global cinema but particularly Britain. He's
02:49 a brand in himself and he has a very specific way of working. But now it's quite enjoyable
02:57 but you have to give yourself to it. I think at the beginning I kind of fought it. How
03:04 does this, how do I position myself? But ultimately once you give into yourself, you give into
03:10 the concept of it you start really enjoying it. What he likes to do is he likes to have
03:15 the story but then get to set and he's like fuck it let's do something else. Within the
03:21 framework of it but what it means is you're kind of coming up with it on the spot. And
03:27 he's been doing it so long that he's incredibly efficient at it but there's a freedom in there
03:32 and a fun in there.
03:34 His work has always known how to intimidate. You get to work with Vinnie Jones. Vinnie Jones
03:39 in a Guy Ritchie project which is just like that is a gift to the world. You've got Breaking
03:45 Bad's Gus Fring in there. You've got Ray Winston. In terms of kind of intimidating characters
03:52 or even intimidating kind of personalities because of what they've done on screen before.
03:57 What's that experience been like working with those guys? Did any one of them surprise you
04:03 in the way they were in reality compared to the characters they've played?
04:06 I mean Vinnie's a very sweet guy. You still wouldn't want to fuck with him but he's a
04:13 lovely warm hearted guy. And in a way the character is I wouldn't say close to him but
04:21 he's interested in the hunting and he's got his own estate in groundskeeping. And I loved
04:28 seeing a softer version of him because I loved his performances in Guy's early movies. They're
04:33 fucking seminal but there's a softness and emotionality to him here in his older age
04:40 shall I say which I really found satisfying. And then Ray and Giancarlo as well great great
04:48 actors and really nice people so I was lucky in that way.
04:54 I was listening to Michael Caine's autobiography recently. Got really into actors' autobiographies
05:00 of like fascinating stuff.
05:02 The seminal ones are so fascinating.
05:04 And he talks about after he did Get Carter and how suddenly all sorts of unseemly characters
05:10 were coming up to him in bars and stuff acting like there is may but also kind of telling
05:16 him where he went wrong, the reality of the underbellies of society and stuff like that.
05:23 Is that anything you've thought about? I asked Ray and he was like that's just been my whole
05:27 life. But if you're in a Guy Ritchie gangster series surely that's going to be something
05:32 coming out of the woodwork. Or maybe it's the aristocracy.
05:35 Maybe it's the other way. They'll be like there's more skeletons in the closet than
05:40 you even touched on which I can imagine. Yeah I mean the upper class was fascinating. A
05:46 world I have no idea about. I've never even met anyone even passing at a party or whatever
05:54 who's in that world. And you know the family seat as it were in Bath is the Duke of Beaufort
06:00 seat and you know I had no idea. You Google it. All this stuff comes up on the Daily Mail
06:05 of this kind of fucking wildlife that this man had and the eccentricities that comes
06:11 with it. And you just think I can't believe that still exists in modern culture. It's
06:18 mind boggling in a way. But it's very British and I think that's what Guy loves. Something
06:25 very British about high antipathy what it meant to have indentured wealth and how that
06:32 affected the rest of British society and how it's kind of shaped us historically. To be
06:38 pretentious about it. Obviously it's a fun series inherently but I think that's the message
06:43 that Guy has too. Well I think this is certainly going to engage
06:47 and fascinate British society and societies in other countries as well. I loved it and
06:51 I think it's one of those that people are going to binge the hell out of when it comes
06:55 out. Congratulations. Thanks man. And I hope you are ready to spend a lifetime of people
06:59 thinking you're a hard nut. A posh hard nut.