Vinnie Jones on X-Men disappointment, turning down Rambo, and working with Guy Ritchie

Yahoo UK

The former footballer turned actor reflects on the highs and lows of his career from Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels to The Gentlemen.

Transcript

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)

08:56 (upbeat music)

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