Ray Winstone on Marvel vs. “Cultural Films,” Angelina Jolie, Steven Spielberg, Gary Oldman as His Favorite Director, and Boxing as Prep for Acting

Ray Winstone, who has played the London tough man and much more over the course of his career, shared insight into working with the likes of Angelina Jolie, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, and Gary Oldman, during a masterclass at the 31st edition of the Sarajevo Film Festival on Tuesday before receiving the honorary Heart of Sarajevo award in recognition of his “remarkable acting career and exceptional contributions to the art of cinema.”

Asked about the state of the movie business in the social media age, Winstone said: “It affects your approach, I guess, because it’s all about selling tickets, isn’t it? It’s like anything today, it becomes a business,” he said. “We see what’s happening in Hollywood with Marvel and all that kind of stuff, the franchises. And we love watching those films. They are fun, but it kind of takes away from your cultural films, which are best for the actors … [and] really active parts. It’s probably getting more and more difficult to do that.”

Continued Winstone: “As for social media, if you’re not on social media now, you’re sometimes not even considered to be in a movie, because they want the fan base to come with that. ‘You have to go on Instagram,’ you know. But it’s part and parcel of the job that you do now. Whether that’s a good thing or not, I don’t know. But if it brings people into the cinema and it creates more jobs and more films are being made,” he sees that as a positive.

Winstone concluded: “But I’d like to see much more, I guess, cultural films being made. I think it’s where the best cinema is.”

The star would especially love to see “more films from the British film industry,” highlighting: “The French do it, they make their own cultural films. 
The Germans do it. Hopefully, you’ll do it more here [in Bosnia and Herzegovina], and that’s the way it should be, that’s where filmmakers come from. The trouble is that they get dragged to America and work for the studios, and they get their hearts broken.”

The actor shared that he wouldn’t want to live in Los Angeles as that would force him to “live and breathe [my work] every day of my life.”

Later in the masterclass, he was asked about experiences of rejection, recalling his frustration with reshoots on Marvel’s Black Widow, in which he portrayed the villainous Dreykov. He lauded the “amazing” director Cate Shortland, sharing that, “we worked on what my character was going to be. He was like a pedophile running around among all these girls, and they’d become black widows.” He recalled earning raves on the set, concluding: “It was probably the best thing I’d done for a really long time.” But then things changed.

He received a call telling him about reshoots, and when he asked how many scenes were affected, he was told all of them. “So I said she should recast, but I was contracted, so I had to do it,” Winstone shared. “I go back, they do my hair all nice, put me in the suit, and I couldn’t do it. … There’s nothing worse than doing something, leaving it on the floor, and then being told it’s not right.”

The boxer-turned-actor, 68, first made a name for himself on the silver screen when he played a juvenile delinquent in Alan Clarke’s 1979 drama Scum, followed by his portrayal of tough-guy mod Kevin in Franc Roddam’s Quadrophenia that same year. With those and his later roles, such as Gary Oldman’s Nil by Mouth (1997) and Jonathan Glazer’s Sexy Beast (2000), Winstone earned raves for combining muscle and intensity with vulnerability.

”I had done a school play because I fancied a girl in the play, and I had enjoyed it,” he shared about his first steps into acting. And he discussed his success in boxing before hanging up the gloves, saying it prepared him for acting work. “Boxing teaches you to respect an opponent,” which mirrors the respect you need on a film or TV set or a theatre stage. “You rely on the actors, the director, the crew.”

Asked about the two versions of his first film Scum, directed by Clarke, the star offered: “The first version is actually a better film, because we were younger, and it’s a film about young people…and how they treat each other.” He lauded Clarke as getting good work out of him and teaching him all the basics. Clarke, therefore, was the director who likely influenced his acting most, Winstone shared.

He also discussed playing a singer together with musicians from The Clash and Sex Pistols in Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains, and “growing old together” with them, sharing that in his family, he grew up singing songs, including those by Frank Sinatra.

Asked about starring in Gary Oldman’s directing debut Nil by Mouth. Gary is probably of our our best cinema and stage actors” and had written a script. “I like films about social issues,” including “deprived areas” and drugs. “I’m from a working-class family,” so he was familiar with such themes. Oldman is “probably the best director I have worked with” because he knows acting.

The film is about abuse, but he trusted all creatives on it, and he was able to leave the violence and pain on set, while playing a pedophile in The War Zone, directed by Tim Roth, really “hurt,” Winstone shared.

Discussing Sexy Beast, he lauded Ben Kingsley for his “range” that has seen him play many different characters – from Gandhi to a psychopath in that film.

Winstone shared that he likes to play the bad guys as good guys and vice versa to make violence and the like more impactful.

Audiences also know Winstone as a mob enforcer in Martin Scorsese and Jack Nicholson’s The Departed (2006) and, more recently, as the imprisoned drug boss Bobby Glass in Guy Ritchie’s Netflix hit series The Gentlemen. Over his career, Winstone has also voiced Mr. Beaver in the 2005 fantasy epic The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and appeared in such big-budget blockbusters as Black Widow and as Beowulf in Robert Zemeckis’ 2007 animated action film Beowulf.

Asked about his work with Scorsese, the actor said he met the director in a London hotel and was supposed to play a policeman, suggesting to the man whom “I call Marty now” that he could play a different role. Scorsese liked his coat and asked if he could wear it for the role, which he did.

How was work with Steven Spielberg on Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull? “Spielberg was great,” he replied. “It’s amazing when he makes films, how he shoots. He films differently.” He said he loved standing behind Spielberg and Scorsese, watching them do their magic.

A fan in the audience asked the star what it was like to work with Jolie in Beowulf. “Angelina was fantastic. What an actress the girl is,” he said. “You know, she’s not just beautiful. She can really do business, and [is] a good kisser as well, I must say,” he added about kissing scene shoots, drawing laughter from the audience.

Which of the many characters or professions he has played did he enjoy portraying the least? “The pedophile,” he said right away.

Asked about the best advice he ever received, Winstone said it was a criticism that his eyes looked dead in a scene, sharing that he learned right then and there that much of acting comes from and through the eyes.

What’s next for him? ”I’m doing some more of The Gentlemen,” Winstone said in discussing current work, adding that he has also shot a biopic about English snooker player Jimmy White that is directed by Steven Waddington and which stars Welsh actor Aneurin Barnard.

“He is an actor who has captivated audiences for five decades with his great talent and undeniable presence,” said Sarajevo Film Festival director Jovan Marjanovic. “With honesty and intensity that resonate far beyond the screen, he has given us many unforgettable characters.”

Winstone also captivated the Tuesday masterclass with his humor, at one point sharing that he was feeling the red wine thahad t he had the night before. “The local wine is really good,” he said to laughter.