Famed British actor Ray Winstone is attending the Sarajevo Film Festival this week to receive an award for contributions to the art of cinema.
The actor has participated in both arthouse and mainstream commercial features over his career, ranging from “Indiana Jones” and “The Departed”, to “The Proposition” and “Ripley’s Game”.
Asked about the changes he’s seen over the years (via Variety), the actor said he feels the industry has ‘become a business’ far more than it used to be:
“It’s all about selling tickets. We see what’s happening in Hollywood with Marvel and all that kind of stuff… There is room for it, and it’s fun, but it takes away from getting cultural films made, which are best for the actors, [and] are really good acting parts. It’s getting more and more difficult to do that.
If you’re not on social media now, they might not even consider you for a movie because they want a fanbase to come with that. You have to go on Instagram, and I don’t want to go on f–king Instagram.
I don’t know if it’s a good thing, but if it brings people to the cinema and creates new jobs, then I’ll do it. But I’d like to see more cultural films being made, that’s where good cinema is. From my point of view, anyway.”
One major commercial work he appeared in was Marvel Studios’ “Black Widow” movie as the villain Dreykov, an experience he had some serious issues with when it came time to do Marvel’s penchant for reshoots:
“I worked with this amazing director, Cate Shortland, and we worked on what my character was going to be. He was like a pedophile running around all these girls, and they’d become black widows. We used to get applauded on set. It was probably the best thing I’ve done for a really long time.
Then I come home after finishing the job and get a call saying we need to do some reshoot. I say: how many scenes? [Cate] says ‘all of them.’ So I said she should recast [the role], but I was contracted, so I had to do it.
I go back, they do my hair all nice, put me in the suit, and I couldn’t do it. I’d already done it. I thought, ‘I’m not doing it now. I’ve done it. That’s how it’s going to be.’ That’s rejection, you know? There’s nothing worse than doing something, leaving it on the floor, and then being told it’s not right.”
The actor will soon be seen in the next season of Guy Ritchie’s “The Gentlemen” series and an untitled Jimmy White biopic.
