Ray Winstone has recalled a tense on-set moment in which he confronted a director for groping his female co-star, in a new interview with The Times of London.
"I had this director once," Winstone said. "I was in a scene where I had to pick up this girl, and the director wanted to show me what to do. But he was groping her. That was it. I said, 'Don't you dare do that.' He abused his power, took advantage, and she was a good kid, you know, who seemed a little lost. Anyway, it was dealt with."
When pressed on how exactly the situation was resolved, Winstone offered a candid look at how things were once handled on film sets. "Well, back in the day, if there was a wrong 'un on set, 99 times out of 100 it was sorted, either by the hairy-arse riggers or sparks," he said. "I've done it myself too, taken someone to the side to give them a slap or to tell them, in no uncertain terms, to behave. But it's a different world today."
The actor is set to return in Season 2 of "The Gentlemen," the Guy Ritchie-created Netflix crime drama, which has already been renewed for a third season. Winstone plays crime kingpin Bobby Glass in the series.
Reflecting further on his career during the sit-down, Winstone acknowledged a shift in how he's perceived on set these days. "When you're not the young lead but the old boy, who everyone says they've got to look after because he's getting on a bit," he said. Asked by The Times whether he had plans to slow down, Winstone replied with characteristic humor: "Well, you've got to pay the taxman, haven't you?"
Photo: Ibsan73, CC BY 2.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
