Since he emerged to great acclaim in Alan Clarkes Scum 30 years ago, Ray Winstone has become one of Britains busiest and most popular screen actors. Key highlights in his film career include Nil By Mouth, The War Zone, Sexy Beast, Last Orders, Cold Mountain, The Proposition, The Departed, Beowulf and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
In 44 Inch Chest (released on DVD and Blu-ray in the UK on Monday May 10th) he plays Colin, whose life is turned upside down when his wife Liz (Joanne Whalley) reveals that she is leaving him for her young French lover (Melvil Poupaud). He reacts violently, and his close knit group of friends (played by Ian McShane, John Hurt, Tom Wilkinson and Stephen Dillane) rally round to offer their support. They kidnap the cuckold, whom they call Loverboy, and in a deserted house spend the evening deciding what terrible revenge to take upon him.
How long have you been connected with 44 Inch Chest?
I was aware of the script about seven or eight years ago, after Sexy Beast because its by the same writers, Louis Mellis and David Scinto. I love their writing, so I got hold of it and read it. We knew it was going to be a very difficult film to make anyway because it feels like a stage play in some ways. Thats where director Malcolm Venville came in. Its staged the way it is because its in someones head, a lot of it. Whether you get that when you watch the film is kind of irrelevant, in a way.
You and Ian McShane were pitching the script to potential financiers werent you?
It took quite a while to get the film off the ground, between me and Ian McShane. I was punting it a lot. You go into places and they ask what youve got and you say youve got this. I was sitting in the Chateau Marmont in LA one day having a drink, as you do, and I came across Richard Brown, who became one of the producers on the film. He asked what I had and I showed him this. The title alone gets people interested because they think theyre going to get a gangster film. He said send it to me, so I did. Then my agent in America also represents Malcolm, so thats how I met him. Hes got some soul, which I think the film needed, and it all kind of fell into place from there. Thats how your luck goes sometimes, you meet the right person in the right place, and it kind of took off. But it was still a very difficult film to make in a way because youre in one location most of the time.
Thats true, the story unfolds in one dingy room with this group of guys goading each other on to do something nasty to Loverboy, doesnt it?
Its very difficult to stage that. How many times can you move people around a room without it feeling like youre looking out front and staging a play? But I think Malcolm achieved it with his vision and his eye for film.
Did you enjoy your role as producer on this?
Not really. I like doing what I do. Im an executive producer, which means you dont get paid basically, but Im very proud to be associated with this kind of film. To be a part of it from the beginning, thats an accolade that me and Ian McShane deserve. So thats okay, I can live with that. The process of actually making the film, and turning up every day and going to work with the talent that we had around us was phenomenal.
As far as the casting goes, did you quickly settle on the actors that you ended up with?
There were a lot of people approached to play these parts. Some read the script and didnt get it, or didnt like it. They didnt like the language, for whatever reasons, and thats fine as well. My Dad would probably say what do I want to go to the cinema and listen to swearing for?. I think the films got a lot more in it than that, that just happens to be the way people speak in certain places.
How do you address the issue of the strong language in the film, and the dark implications of the action?
To me its like listening to Shakespeare in a way, without the five beats. Theres something very poetic about the way these boys write, I just wish there were more writers like them. Sometimes all you hear about a script is that an actor gets it and strips it and strips it and all thats left is the visuals. Thats fantastic, thats cinema, but its also great to listen to the words. I love films like A Man For All Seasons, Robert Bolt wrote a script that stands up today and thats all dialogue. Okay this is a working mans version, dare I say it, its a film that hopefully keeps you locked in on the dialogue because visually theres nowhere else you can go other than that room. But I think its shot in a way that complements it.
In the end it is a film about conscience isnt it?
Its about conscience, its about a man having a breakdown, and a man who loves someone too much. Its a really funny subject, one I havent seen before. Its a very different film than any Ive seen before, about actually smothering someone you love. In a way it reminds me a lot of The War Zone, a film I did about incest. Its getting to know someone within the film and maybe feeling sorry for them. Seeing the pain hes in through that love, and then finding out what he actually did and asking yourself how you feel about him afterwards.
How was it for Melvil Poupaud, playing the French guy on the receiving end of some brutal treatment?
Several people were offered the part, it really needed a fine actor and a brave actor as well, to come in and not speak a word. Its all physical, its all body language. Originally it was going to be an Italian waiter, but theres something about the French [chuckles]. Melvils a talent, a big star in France, so it was a very brave thing for him to come and do this, sitting there and listening to us waffle on all day with a bag on his head.
Was it not intense for you too, playing a man on the verge of a nervous breakdown?
Thats the thing about the part, because from beginning to end youre in a certain state, with this nervous breakdown. Hes getting worse and worse as the film goes on. Thats the killer, really. But I kind of enjoy being intense because Im not that intense when Im not working. Of course it was tiring. By the time I finished I was completely shattered but thats only for a couple of days. Whenever you finish a job and your holidays about to start your body knows it and turns off for a while.
The film also conveys the complex relationship between these five friends doesnt it, with a lot unsaid, and issues underlying their threatened abuse of their kidnap victim?
I think you get to know them as the film goes on, what theyre about. Its that thing of your mates egging you on, Who is he? Do the bastard!. Some people do it and some dont, without giving too much away. Theyre all geezers. When the time comes, it takes a certain sort of man if you want to call him a man to kill someone, or hurt someone. Theres people who are capable of that, but do you put them in the same category as another human being? I dont know.
How did Joanne Whalley feel as the only woman on set?
Shes a top girl. Shes one of the geezers, a stunning girl and a great actress. I love her to death.
How did you feel about your character, Colin, by the end of the film?
I felt for him, I did, even with what he did I felt for him. He can be a bit of pussy cant he, over loving. But there for the grace of God can go anyone of us, I guess.
Does it seem curious to you now that youre able to use your name to help get films like this made and at the same go off to work with the likes of Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese?
Crazy, innit?
Is this the kind of stuff youd never have dared dream of when you were starting out?
I wouldnt have even thought about it, it didnt even enter my head. Getting a film like Scum, when I was 17 or 18, I didnt even understand what it was. I was playing this geezer in a film. I had no idea, no concept of that or where it would take me. Id have loved it, loved to have been a film actor, but people like me didnt do that.
Did you not even take someone like Michael Caine as your example?
He was a great influence, I love Michael Caine. And then later on Bob Hoskins and all that. But I never put myself into that bracket because they were real actors, proper actors, good actors. I never saw myself as that because I suppose it was all a little bit of a game.
Was there a moment when you suddenly considered yourself as having made it as a film actor yourself?
I could never believe Id be on a film set at all, let alone one with Scorsese or Gary Oldman and Tim Roth. I like them, and theyre really talented boys. And just down to working with Malcolm Venville on this, theyre geniuses, really clever people. Youre just a cog in that wheel going along, and hopefully youll become a part of that and help make the film they want to make and help turn it into something special. I think you feel like that on any film you do.
How does Hollywood regard you, do you think?
A little fat geezer from the East End! I dont know, I get a really good reception there. Its almost like they understand me more than the industry does here, I get that vibe about it but thats okay. They look at us English actors with a lot of respect, you know, and theyre ready to take a bit more of a chance on the parts that we play. Here you have to create 
the work for yourself, and then it can be a little bit cruel, but thats life.
44 INCH CHEST is out on DVD and Blu-ray in the UK on Monday, May 10th, 2011.
And you could win a copy of the Blu-ray in out great comp – to find out how CLICK HERE.