The former footballer turned actor reflects on the highs and lows of his career from Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels to The Gentlemen.
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00:00 (Music)
00:03 You got a snack here for me, have you?
00:09 Come on.
00:11 Chop, chop.
00:13 Moving from a career from football to acting,
00:17 it couldn't have been easy for you,
00:19 but I wondered how did that come about
00:21 and what was the experience making that film?
00:25 Did you have acting aspirations when you were in your footballing days?
00:28 No, it was the boys, Matthew and Guy,
00:32 just arranged a meeting for me to meet them
00:34 and said would you do a cameo role in this film?
00:38 So that's how that came about.
00:40 I was still playing when it came out a year later.
00:43 It was only until that movie came out
00:46 and then I got a call from Jerry Brookheimer to do Gone in 60 Seconds.
00:50 And then I decided to retire.
00:54 I tore for a year earlier,
00:56 and my aspirations were to be a manager,
00:58 not to go into acting.
01:00 It just came from nowhere, really.
01:02 How would you describe your experience making that film?
01:06 I didn't think there was any future in it.
01:09 I just went and done it like normal,
01:12 like going to open a fish and chip shop.
01:15 You go up there and, hey, thanks very much,
01:17 cut the ribbon and piss off.
01:19 It was the same as that.
01:20 I'd turn up, smash a Geezer's head in the sunbed
01:25 and say, "See you later."
01:27 And then all of a sudden it went, "Oh, hold on a minute.
01:30 What's that? Come back.
01:32 Want to do some reshoots?"
01:33 "Oh, OK."
01:34 Then all of a sudden you win Best British Newcomer.
01:37 And then it all starts going, "Oh, hold on."
01:40 Look in the dark.
01:41 You mean look in the dock.
01:45 I mean open them up.
01:47 Not long after you reunited with Guy Ritchie for Snatch,
01:52 and you obviously had Brad Pitt, Benicio Del Toro on the scene in that film,
01:56 I wondered, did it feel like the stakes were higher
01:59 or was it a different experience?
02:02 We were on such a high because of the names, obviously.
02:05 Dennis Farina, as you said, Brad, Benicio.
02:10 We were just all on a frenzy, I think.
02:15 We didn't really know what was going on.
02:17 And we were all going round,
02:19 pinching ourselves, being on the set with Brad Pitt.
02:23 And Brad was such a good lad as well, off the screen.
02:27 I took him to Walthamstow Dogs one night.
02:30 He was bored, phoned me from the Grove now,
02:33 and said, "I'm bored out of my head. What are you doing?"
02:36 So I took him to Walthamstow Dogs.
02:38 That ain't there no more.
02:40 And he reminded me of that a little while ago, Brad, when I saw him.
02:44 Yeah, it was a magical moment of life.
02:47 It really was.
02:49 You had everything they ever dreamed of,
02:52 and you threw it all away.
02:54 You got to employ your actual footballing experience.
03:01 Yeah, that was my first lead role. Matthew Vaughan did that.
03:05 Guy was the exec producer on that.
03:07 And it was good. It was a good little movie.
03:10 I think it was Sony again.
03:12 I thought it was going to be bigger than what it was.
03:15 And I think they decided to do it just domestic.
03:19 Yeah, it was a bit of a shame at the time.
03:23 That was your third time collaborating with Jason Statham,
03:27 your long-time friend.
03:29 How do you find working with him again?
03:31 We just have a laugh. We literally have a laugh.
03:34 We don't take the work too serious, and we have a laugh.
03:36 Did it help to have that footballing experience
03:39 and helping the other cast members of there?
03:41 When we said about Jay, I was like, "What are we going to do with him?"
03:44 And they said, "We'll just put him in gold."
03:46 I went, "Oh, yeah, all right. Good idea, Matthew Vaughan."
03:49 What do they call you?
03:54 Juggernaut.
03:55 Juggernaut is such an iconic villain of the comic book.
03:58 Matthew was the director on that, Matthew Vaughan,
04:00 and then he bailed on it, and he rung me and he said,
04:04 "Have you signed your contract yet?" I said, "No, why?"
04:06 He said, "I'm not going to do it.
04:08 They're going to bring a new director on."
04:12 So the new director came on,
04:14 and it was not the same role as I had signed on to do.
04:19 They diluted the dialogue. It was a bigger role.
04:23 And I've actually come out and said that.
04:27 The director brought in so many other moving parts
04:32 and so many other actors that mine was the one that got diluted.
04:37 The juggernaut got diluted, and I didn't...
04:41 I lost all interest quite early because I knew they were just
04:46 ticking me along, you know what I mean?
04:48 And I was very upset, really, because it was such a movie,
04:51 such a big stage, and it became an extra.
04:54 That's what happened, do you know what I mean?
04:56 Yeah. That one iconic line.
04:59 Yeah, and that was afterwards.
05:01 That weren't in the...
05:03 They came to Austria and filmed that.
05:06 I mean, we did the movie in Vancouver,
05:09 and then Brett Ratner phoned me and he said,
05:11 "Oh, I want you to do this line."
05:13 He'd seen it online, I think. I think it was online.
05:16 And so he said, "I want you to do it."
05:19 So we had to go to Elstree for the day,
05:21 and we did that one line at Elstree.
05:24 But, yeah, I was very disappointed with that.
05:28 Yeah, there's a lot of reports of it being quite a troubled production.
05:31 I guess...
05:32 Yeah, no, I didn't get... I had my family there,
05:34 so I didn't get involved with any of the politics.
05:36 But I was going in going, "Why are you...
05:40 "Where's all my dialogue? Where's the storyline?"
05:43 You know, and Brett had different directors directing,
05:48 and he would sit there as the big director.
05:50 It was... For me, it was a shambles, yeah.
05:53 And it was a shame.
05:55 I had a fantastic experience on Gone in 60 Seconds.
05:58 Really did. I knew what my role was,
06:00 and I really got on well with everyone.
06:05 But, you know, when it came out, I was...
06:07 Yeah, I was upset with the X-Men. Very upset.
06:09 You know, and I...
06:11 I snapped about a year ago and said...
06:14 I actually said my side of it, cos I hadn't said my side of it,
06:17 and I said, "You know, I got dumped on, really.
06:20 "My character got dumped on."
06:22 And funny enough, I just got asked to do Deadpool,
06:24 the new one that's coming out now,
06:26 and I spoke to the director and I just said,
06:28 "It's so... It's such a drama putting that suit on."
06:32 You know, mentally and physically.
06:34 I mean, it had its mental toll as well, cos you're in it
06:38 and you can't do anything all day.
06:40 You can only drink through a straw, and it's...
06:43 So we couldn't strike the deal for Deadpool,
06:46 but, I mean, Deadpool's my favourite movie of f***ing time, more or less,
06:49 but I really wanted to do it,
06:51 but they didn't have the budget to do... to put me in the suit.
06:55 Smash that door down. I'll come round from the other side.
07:00 Obviously, that was number one of your escape plan,
07:04 where you got to work two of the greats of the action genre.
07:07 Yeah, and it was great,
07:09 cos I basically was playing golf all the time with Sly,
07:12 and even on set we were sorting out our drivers and our wedges,
07:18 and then with Arnold, we were just talking about football.
07:22 He liked his football, you know, and Germany,
07:25 and I played against Germany in Dusseldorf.
07:29 Yeah, and I...
07:31 And so it was quite strange to be on a set with...
07:37 with them two.
07:40 I've got a brilliant picture, we've got the three chairs,
07:42 Jones, Sly and Arnold. I've got that.
07:45 And then...
07:47 But I'd met Sly before, he wanted me for Rambo,
07:50 and we couldn't do the deal.
07:53 But I went to see him at his house,
07:56 and we had a cigar together, and he actually...
07:59 I think it was Rocky VI, he'd just cut Rocky VI together,
08:03 and that's one of my claims to fame,
08:05 I saw Rocky VI before it even came out.
08:08 So I knew Sly from that, but, yeah,
08:11 I turned Rambo down, which was one of my best decisions.
08:14 Though they appear to be house-trained,
08:17 don't be deceived by the facade.
08:19 Obviously, you're re-nighting with Guy Ritchie again.
08:22 How do you feel like you've both grown
08:25 over these last two decades of working with each other?
08:28 To see how massive Guy has grown, confident-wise,
08:33 and to run a set like this, a massive set like this,
08:39 and I was on the...
08:42 I don't know whether we had 25 or 30 people on the set of Lock, Stock,
08:46 but it was a massive contrast, and he was just in control again,
08:50 it was just like water off a duck's back for him.
08:54 (upbeat music)
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