00:00If you're playing the good guy, playing as a bad guy, he's much more interesting, you know.
00:13Hi everyone, we are here at the Variety Lounge at the Sarajevo Film Festival with actor Ray Winston,
00:19who is the recipient of the festival's Honorary Heart of Sarajevo. Welcome, Ray.
00:23Thank you, my darling.
00:24Thank you so much for being here. And how are you feeling about receiving your award tonight?
00:28My first reaction was, why? Which, you know, and then you kind of really sit down and think about it
00:35and what it actually is about and you realise that I've been making films for 50 years.
00:43And to be awarded something like that from something, a place like this, you know,
00:49all it's been through and everything and the reasons it was set up is quite an honour.
00:55And you kind of delve into it a little bit, the cultural side of it and you start talking to people
01:01that were warring with one another and through a festival that's been going for 30-odd years,
01:08that all them people have actually come together through the arts and, you know, their cultures have come together.
01:14And that's quite an incredible thing, quite an incredible achievement from this place, you know.
01:20And so it makes the honour even bigger.
01:23So let's go back to the beginning.
01:24You were a school boxing champion.
01:26You won 80 out of 88 bouts.
01:28I don't know about a champion, but yeah, I've done my bit.
01:31You can call it that.
01:32Yeah.
01:32So how do you go from the ring to the screen?
01:34I've done school play.
01:35I think I said this yesterday, you know, because I fancied a girl that was in the play, you know.
01:40I was only a young kid and my mum and dad kind of thought it was a good idea and when no one from my area was actually going into, you know, the arts in that way, you know.
01:53And they thought I was a little bit of a scallywag, as we call it.
01:56And I went to drama college for about nine months to a year and I was lucky enough while I was at drama college to be expelled.
02:06And I went along for a job to say goodbye to the rest of the students there and I got the part.
02:14And it's really how your luck can be sometimes, you know, and that's how I kind of started off.
02:20And then I started to learn my trade through directors like Alan Clark, Frank Rodham, working with producers like Don Boyd.
02:30And gradually I learned from them what it is to become an actor, I guess, you know, now to technically be an actor because you have a raw thing anyway.
02:42But it's just actually managing that.
02:43So I kind of learned that way.
02:45What are the transferable skills perhaps from boxing to acting and the physicality of it?
02:50I think it's a respect, you know, in a ring you face an opponent and 88 fights and 87 of those people are respected.
03:01You do, you know, you're a man upon man, you know, in a way.
03:05But I think it's the same kind of thing with acting is to trust and the respect for someone who's standing opposite you that you realize that you need that person to be on form as much as you've got to be on form.
03:16They make you look good.
03:18And I think that really helped me from the boxing side of things.
03:21You went on to play what people perceive as a lot of tough guys.
03:23But yesterday in your masterclass you said something so interesting.
03:26You say when you play a bad guy, you play him good because it makes them more of a monster.
03:30It's written as a bad guy.
03:32You haven't got to play that.
03:34It's there.
03:34It's on the text, you know.
03:36And I just make, I think it makes him more three-dimensional.
03:40Anyone can turn up and play the bad guy, you know.
03:42Okay.
03:43Swear a lot and punch people, you know.
03:45But guys do believe they're good guys.
03:47They're doing things for the right reasons, you know.
03:50And they don't have an excuse for that.
03:51So you play him as the good guy and vice versa.
03:56You know, if you're playing the good guy, play him as a bad guy.
03:59It's fucking much more interesting, you know.
04:01Perhaps surprisingly, you're an actor who's very interested in love stories.
04:05You've called Neil by Mouth a love story.
04:06Sexy Beast a love story.
04:08Why do they attract you?
04:10I think it's to do with the writing.
04:11You've got to be lucky enough to have the writing.
04:14I mean, Sexy Beast, David and Louis wrote that.
04:18We didn't change a word in the script, you know.
04:21If you did change a word, it didn't work.
04:25And it is a love story.
04:26It's a love story between a man and a woman.
04:27It's a love story between two men, in a way.
04:31And Neil by Mouth is the same, you know.
04:32It's about a man who can't, you know, from my point of view anyway,
04:36it's about a man who can't articulate, you know.
04:40And so he articulates with his fists and while screaming and shouting, you know.
04:46But at the end of the day, they still kind of look at one another and love one another.
04:51I'm at some point that's right and that's the way to go about it.
04:53But that's the kind of way I approached it, you know.
04:56I'm just saying thanks and all that.
04:59Thanks for thinking of me.
05:01But I'm just going to have to turn this opportunity down.
05:04No, you're just going to have to turn this opportunity, yes.
05:07Is this an entry point for your process, the idea of love, this raw foundation of emotional?
05:12Not all the time, no.
05:13You know, jobs are different.
05:15Writing's different.
05:15But I try to find that in most things, you know, vulnerability.
05:19I think filmically vulnerability is a great thing for a man to show, you know.
05:23Another common thing in your career is that you've done incredible works with actors,
05:28turn directors, with Gary Oldman and nobody math.
05:30You've worked with Tim Roth and his director of The Wire Zone.
05:33Is there anything that draws you to actors, turn directors?
05:36Yeah, usually, I mean, I haven't worked with many actors who've become directors,
05:40but the ones I have are usually really good actors.
05:43And they have a good team around them, technically, you know, of DOPs and all that.
05:48And they can actually put across how they want to shoot a film and the DOP will sort that.
05:53But it's the sitting down and talking to your character, the people that are around you,
06:00that they understand the process of that.
06:04And that's maybe why, you know, it's very selfish from an actor's point of view.
06:08Technically, they may not be the best, but for an actor, they are.
06:12And there's something so interesting.
06:13I was reading how the festival described you when giving you the award,
06:17and they called you a symbol of authentic British acting.
06:20How do you feel about that?
06:21And do you think there's such a thing today as authentic British acting?
06:24That's a hell of a weight on my shoulders.
06:26I've been lucky enough to work with some icons from the British industry,
06:31you know, like Michael Caine, Bob Oskins, David Emmons, Tom Courtney,
06:38all these people that I grew up watching.
06:41And they were the reason why I could become an actor.
06:45You know, kids like me who come from whether it's Manchester, Liverpool, London, Coventry,
06:50that actually felt that they maybe could become an actor, you know.
06:54And to work alongside them was a bit of a hell of a moment for me.
07:00And you have worked with some of the greatest you ever do,
07:02and you've worked with Spielberg, with Scorsese, with Antony Minghella.
07:06Is there anyone that you still want to work with?
07:09I like first-time directors, you know,
07:12because they don't know the rules and they break them, you know.
07:15And I find that really interesting, you know.
07:19Ridley Scott, I'd have liked to work with Ridley Scott.
07:23You know, I like his films.
07:25And in terms of dream roles that you perhaps thought about
07:28but you haven't been considered for,
07:29is there anything on your bucket list?
07:31No.
07:34There's one that Nick Cave wrote with Johnny Hillcoat, Bunny Monroe.
07:39And I looked at it about, I guess, 20 years ago.
07:43And I went, wow, I got it, you know.
07:46And they're about to, I think they're going to do it now,
07:49but I'm too old now to do it.
07:51So I missed that one.
07:52I'd have loved to have done that.
07:53But it will be, it'll be special.
07:56It will be special.
07:57I'll be looking forward to seeing it, you know.
07:59I think someone can make it work.
08:01No, no, CGI, no.
08:02Thank you so much for being here at the Variety Lounge with us, Ray.
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