| Ray Winstone Becomes Incredibly Transformed Into Beowulf |
| Written by Brad Balfour | |||||
| Friday, 16 November 2007 11:06 | |||||
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"Beowulf" stars Ray Winstone, Angelina Jolie, and Crispin Glover
Beowulf (voiced by Ray Winstone) and Wiglaf (voiced by Brendan Gleeson) in "Beowulf"
Ray Winstone at the Los Angeles premiere of "Beowulf"
In a way it's a wonder this hardscrabble working-class boxer became an actor, but he's a natural for starting his career through the part of boxer Kenny Fox in the British TV series "Fox." Ray appeared in a lot of other U.K. TV series and such English films as "Quadrophenia," "Nil By Mouth," "The War Zone" and "Sexy Beast." Winstone then played in such higher-profile films as "The Departed," "Breaking and Entering," The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," "King Arthur," and "Cold Mountain." Q: What was it like seeing yourself as a 6' 6" tall Norse god-like figure? Ray Winstone: It's like my alter-ego isn't it? I thought it was fantastic. I didn't have to train; I didn't even have to eat the right foods; I didn't have to go running. I just ate cheese. My jaw hit the floor. You go in and see the artwork. The only way I can explain this is, when you make a film, you get a feeling for the set, you put your make-up on, you put your costume on and you perform. With this one, you perform, then they put your make-up on, then put your costume on and then they make the set. What it does is, it makes your imagination explode. You are performing with the greatest actors of the world, and performing you are. I couldn't comprehend the look of the piece. So I sat down in the cinema with my brother-in-law and my jaw hit the floor. I mean, I'm working with Robert Zemeckis, and he's a genius, but even I don't think he meant for it to look like that. And that's like "Polar Express." It's all that work that they did on "Polar Express," that's where they learned all that. That's where the word "computer" gets confused with us. That's us. We're acting. I think the word "computer' confuses people, because they don't know if we've done that or not. But it's the most physical job I've done at the time, especially at 48, which I was at the time [of shooting]. There were stunts, you have to walk like you're a 6' 6" warrior. At the end of the day, you're knackered. I've never been so tired in my whole life. It was the purest performance you can have. Q: Were there different challenges for you as an actor? RW: Well yes, acting like a 6' 6", 20-year-old with an eight-pack was a real challenge because you have to move like you're 6' 6" with an eight pack. If you move like a 50-year-old man, then that's what it's going to look like. And then when you play the dragon...[it's another thing]. I am in there, hung mid-air, my arms are the wings, my face becomes the face of the dragon, the legs becomes the talons, your ass becomes the tail and away you go. It all becomes about the body. It was fantastic, you can play King Kong like that--I appreciated what Andy Serkis [who played Kong in motion-capture suit] went through. All of a sudden you're propelled into another world. It was a good feeling. You can't really ask for any more than that. Q: Did you think that one day you'd work with a great actor like Sir Anthony Hopkins, but there you are with blue leotards and... RW: Yeah, I thought I'd love to play a Viking ever since I saw Kirk Douglas do it. It's part of our history, Vikings. They are them and we are us. It was a fantastic thing at 48, I thought I would play the top Viking's grandfather or something. But to play Beowulf--which by the way I knew nothing about before I read the script--it was something really special. Q: What do you think about a film like this where you play such a macho warrior but the only person you cannot defeat is a woman? RW: I think that's right. It's funny how women always betray [the men], like how Angelina [Jolie] is in the film. And this goes back through time. To me she was as ambitious as his greed. It's funny how women, especially sexy women, are always portrayed as a man's downfall. They are, aren't they? Even for Adolf Hitler, [he had] Eva Braun. Your mind goes somewhere else. So women have a lot to answer for [laughs]. Q: Were you a fan of science fiction/horror films? RW: Not really, not as much horror films. I'd always wanted to be in a horror film. One of the greatest horror films I ever saw is "Alien"--that waiting to see this monster in an enclosed space, floating about. And "Exorcist." Batman and Robin and Spiderman were there when I was a kid, but it never was my thing, comic books. Q: You're playing the original mythic hero, though. RW: The original one, that's right. I wasn't interested in them, Batman and Robin...I was doing other things. Q: Were you doing "The Departed" when you took off to do this? What did you think when Robert Zemeckis chose you for this role? RW: Well, when the script is great and portrays a character that is 6' 6", eyes are blue, koochy koochy koo, you go, there must be another "Ray Winstone." I'm 5' 10" and I've got a one-pack, I'm 50. So I thought, "He's made a mistake here." I met him and admired what the story was about. It's about ambition and greed. It's timeless. It's stuck in my head that man never learns. We talked about that, and he told me how he was going to do it, which makes sense because I was still thinking he was talking about someone else. And I was surprised I got the part. He was surprised that I was surprised--he'd seen me in "Henry VIII" playing Henry. That's where it all came from. But I still wasn't ready for the final assault in the cinema. It blew me away. Q: Now that you know about this technology, are there parts now that you think you can play? RW: I haven't stopped thinking about it. [laughs] Honest to god, yeah, of course. I'm too old to play some things, but with this technology, I can play Marilyn Monroe. If I was Marilyn Monroe, I'd never go out. I'd stay in with myself. Q: It's funny you mention Shakespeare. You're working with some of the greatest theater actors doing this animation. RW: And great cinema actors. I've never had a classical background. I started that late, I did TV. Theater is great, but after two weeks, you think, "God, can't we do something else?" And I think Anthony feels like that and he's quite right. They are really brilliant actors, and to be opposite of them--they're there looking after you. And to be cast with these people is flattering. As long as you don't become like "Beowulf" and start believing into the publicity. |
