Time Capsule Ray Winstone
THE ORIGINAL SEXY BEAST ON THE IMAGES OF HIS CAREER
WORDS CHRIS HEWITT
“I’M THE DADDY NOW!” yelled Ray Winstone in his blistering breakthrough role as Carlin in Alan Clarke’s 1979 borstal drama Scum. No arguments there. Although it took the East London-born actor a decade or so to properly fulfil that promise, he’s since worked with Hollywood A-listers such as Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese and Robert Zemeckis, while also delivering a raft of incredible turns in homegrown fare. Here, Empire takes him on a trip down Memory Lane…
SPEEDO KING SEXY BEAST 2000
“That’s Raymondo. I’m thinking about the prep for the job. (Winstone plays Gary ‘Gal’ Dove, a retired criminal who has relocated to Spain to start a new life with wife DeeDee, played by Amanda Redman.) I was told to go on the beach when we got there and get a suntan, and eat and drink as much as I wanted. That was my prep. But it still ain’t too bad! It’s alright! That is a geezer. A geezer ain’t got an eight-pack. And that’s what it’s about. ‘Sexy beast’. The beast is the money, the beast is the blag, the beast is Don, the beast is the rabbit, and the beast is Teddy Bass. There’s your sexy beast.”