“Beowulf” is now playing in theaters everywhere.

Question: Did you know it was going to be this homoerotic? I mean, somebody came out and said he’s like a man magnet?

Ray Winstone: It’s really odd to know what you’re going to get because I’ve never seen this process before. And the one you do see is Polar Express. Which we couldn’t be doing this now without Polar Express being done. I’m sure the more this is done, the better it’s is going to be. When you’re doing it you just have to forget about the technical side of it and you just perform, like you would on a normal film. The beauty is you got more freedom, you can walk around.

Q: Why do you think Robert Zemeckis thought of you to play Beowulf?

Ray: Well he’s obviously a very intelligent man. [laughter]

Did he say there’s something?

Ray: Yea he did, Henry VIII. What I done in England. And he liked that. The weird thing was, the day before... The first day on, because Brendan Gleeson, he’s Irish and he’s got that Irish sound to him, I started putting an Irish sound into it. Talking like in a really deep voice, you know? And he went, what are you doing? Well, it’s Celtic... And he says, I want that. I want Henry VIII, that sound. And I knew exactly what he wanted then. Then I was kind of free to go and find it for meself in a way.

Is this something you did in a theater?

Ray: No, no, it was a TV thing we done at home, a two parter.

How many pounds of ego do you have to pour over yourself to play that character?

Ray: Well, it’s more guts really at the beginning because you are quite vulnerable. You walk out and you got this really tight suit on, so every bulge is showing. And you’re standing there like that. Then you got Angelina who’s beautiful and Robin Wright Penn who’s stunning and they look great in the suits, and then there’s me, playing this guy with an 8-pack supposedly. So at first you gotta get over that. And just go...

You have to play a very ego-centric person.

Ray: Yea, and I think that’s the great thing about not knowing the story, not knowing the book, and reading the script. You come into it in a very open fashion. To me it was about egos. It’s much like being an actor or anything really, that you start believing your own press. The stories of Beowulf, you know, you start believing that. And I did do that. Obviously he’s exaggerating the stories, and you believe that. And then the greed and the ambition sets in. And that’s what the story for me was about. Greed and...

And celebrities, too.

Ray: Yea. So it’s kind of to me it was a story that’s about today as much as it was about the past.

You said in the press conference that you’re 5’5” and your character is 6’6”...

Ray: I’m 5’10”.

Oh sorry.

Ray: It’s alright! [laughter] I was sitting down at the time!

Was there any issues with eye-line?

Ray: Yea! When I came close to people, they put a trail of boxes out, so I was walking above them, looking down on them. So, obviously when I was on tables I was above them anyway. That was all thought out, it was thoroughly though out. That really was the only time I didn’t have the freedom to move where I wanted, because we might have gone through it once and seen where I was going to go and that kind of stuff. But, it’s the most freeing experience I’ve ever had of working on a film or anything...

What about the big battle between Beowulf and Grendel? How were you flying up to the rafters?

Ray: Yea, I’m on wires.

Oh you are?

Ray: Yea, but also I’m climbing up them because they built this thing. And I’d climb up him with no wires. You know I’ve done all the stunts in it. I said to the stunt guys, what do you want me to do. What do you feel you can do? Well, I’ll do whatever you think I’m capable of doing. Thinking yea, that’s great, the stunt boy will have done it all. And I’m really pleased I did, because I felt like I really achieved something at the end. And you know you feel the aches and pains the next day, and you break things. I broke ribs...

Did you?

Ray: Yea! With the dragon, when I’m fighting the dragon at the end, and I swing out and I come in grab the heart. Well there’s a big bar, it’s all metal, and its framed and its wire because you have to see through it. And I swung out, you know thinking I’m Errol Flynn, and came back like that and went smash and just done on the ribs. And there’s nothing you can do for ribs, when you break ribs...

Tape them?

Ray: You can’t tape them no more, it’s no good. But it was probably six weeks of real physical performance as well. You was acting with some of the greatest actors in the world.

People have known you from going to film festivals and seeing art films like Sexy Beast and things like this. But this is like, I think, your first big mainstream international huge movie. One, do you think it’s going to make a difference in your career—

Ray: I think way you go it’ll go right out the window! I’ll last about 12 months I suppose before I jump off a building. [laughter] Ah, you don’t know! I’m kind of glad I’m older... Maybe when you’re 22 that kinda can happen. I got enough family around me to kick me in the ass if I need it.

And you got Indiana Jones next!

Ray: Yea, that was fun.

Have you finished?

Ray: Yea, done it, finished a couple of weeks ago.

What can you tell us?

Ray: No, I’d have to kill ya if I told you.

Ray, tell us and kill him! [laughter]

Ray: [Joking...] Did he mean that? Yea, it’s like that eh? Ok...

Were you out of the country?

Ray: Yea, we was all over the place. I just had a ball doing it. It was fun. I mean, you’re a kid again, you’re playing!

So I wanted to ask, the second part of that, if you could tell people a little about your story, your history. We heard that you were a boxer when you were in your teenage years. How did you get into acting?

Ray: When I was at school, I done a play for whatever reasons, I don’t know why I done a play.

Is this in London?

Ray: Yea, I kind of enjoyed it. And around my area there weren’t many kids who became actors. There weren’t, it just didn’t happen. And I think my mum and dad allowed me to go to drama school. And they paid for it, it was about 900 £ a term, three terms a year. I’m going back 1974 that was a lot of money. God knows what my dad was doing, he must’ve been out selling. I went for a year. I was kind of lucky, my face kinda fit, and I was kind a little bit, I don’t know, different I suppose. I had no idea what I was doing. I was just lucky to work with someone called Allen Clark. Who was a teacher, he was a great teacher. And without me even knowing he was teaching me, he did, and I believe that. Because a lot of stuff that he was all about I kind of use now, I didn’t even know he was doing it. And working with Gary Oldman 10 years ago [on Nil by Mouth] was... He’s another great teacher and probably the best director I’ve ever worked with. For my style of acting and what I like to do. Gary to me, he’s just above everything.

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