British actor Ray Winstone, who is renowned for his tough guy performances in films such as The Departed and Sexy Beast, touched down at the Sarajevo Film Festival this week where he participated in a wide-ranging masterclass about his career, working with Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg and Gary Oldman, dealing with rejection and why he wants to see more British films in the ecosystem.
“I didn’t get much education as an actor,” said Winstone, speaking at the Bosnian Cultural Center on Tuesday. “But when I was in drama college – I was there for about a year – I was lucky enough to have met a director called Alan Clarke.”
Clarke went on to direct one of Winstone’s first films, Scum, and the actor credits that director for helping him to learn his craft. “The performance of that film was nothing to do with me and what I learned was from Alan Clarke. Alan Clarke was a great teacher. I love directors for that reason because you put your trust in them and they’re the ones that are educating you, especially when you are at a young age. So, for me, that was my schooling in the profession.”
Winstone’s role in Gary Oldman’s directing debut Nil by Mouth was, he said, a milestone in his career and he credited the Slow Horses actor as being “probably the greatest director” he’s ever worked with.
“It’s kind of the undercurrent, the underbelly of where I’m from,” he said about the 1997 London-set drama. “I’m from a working-class family, but I don’t come from a family like that. But I’ve seen it, and I’ve heard it. It was a very brave bit of writing to actually write about these things and when I read it, I got it, and I understood it. And Gary’s probably the best director I’ve ever worked with. I say that as an actor, because he understands actors.”
Winstone, who is receiving an Honorary Heart of Sarajevo award this week at the festival, also touched on working with Scorsese for The Departed. “I met him at a hotel in London on a Sunday morning – I think it was The Dorchester. And I was up for playing one of the policemen. I didn’t want to play a policeman, and it was kind of a nothing part and I sat down with Marty – I call him Marty now – and we talked about Jack Nicholson’s character. I said that he hasn’t got anyone to talk to. How do you find out about him?”
Winstone then suggested he play Nicholson’s character’s sidekick friend and Scorsese agreed but requested he wear the leather coat he was wearing in the meeting in the film. “So, he got a coat for nothing,” quipped Winstone.
On working with Spielberg for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Winstone said: “He loves you standing behind and watching the screen. Martin Scorsese is the same.”
He added: “It’s amazing when he makes films. How he shoots – he films differently.”
The actor went on to add that he wants to see “more films from the British film industry” coming into the ecosystem, adding that he loves “watching British actors.”
“The French do it – they make their own cultural films. The Germans do it. Hopefully you’ll do it more here and that’s the way it should be. That’s where filmmakers come from. The trouble is that they emigrate to America to work with the studios, and they get their hearts broken.”
The actor also touched on rejection and the role that plays in one’s career, citing his experience on Marvel’s Black Widow, where he was called in to reshoot all of his scenes, as a notable low point for him.
“I told them they should recast,” he recalled. “But I was contracted to do it. So, I went back, they had to do my hair nice, they put me in the suit, and I couldn’t do it. I’d already done it. I’d done it already. I’ve just done this part.”
He continued: “But then you get over it and you just redo the scenes. That’s rejection.”
The 31st Sarajevo Film Festival runs August 15-22.