“The man’s a genius”: The hilarious first meeting of Sir Ben Kingsley and Ray Winstone
By the time Jonathan Glazer’s excellent crime drama Sexy Beast arrived in 2001, its two main stars, Sir Ben Kingsley and Ray Winstone, had already largely established themselves as two of Britain’s greatest actors. Their meeting as Gary Dove and Don Logan in the film resulted in one of the most intense showdowns in the history of crime cinema.
Kingsley had begun his career on the stage and joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1967. 15 years later, he emerged into the world of cinema with an Academy Award-winning performance in Richard Attenborough’s 1982 biographical drama Gandhi, in which he played the titular activist and peacemaker. Over the years, Kingsley delivered fine acting performances in Schindler’s List, Dave, and Rules of Engagement.
Winstone’s early career was very different. He appeared in the Alan Clarke film Scum as well as Franc Roddam’s Quadrophrenia in 1979, but besides a swathe of TV performances, it wasn’t until 1997’s Nil by Mouth and 1999’s The War Zone that Winstone managed to become a household name, something that Sexy Beast further reinforced.
The film focuses on Gary Dove, a retired London gangster who is living out his retirement on the Costa del Sol. However, Gal’s life is disrupted by the arrival of former associate Don Logan, a sociopathic criminal who forces Gal to take part in one last job back home. A true masterpiece of a crime film, Sexy Beast saw widespread acclaimed laden upon both Kingsley and Winstone, who crafted some of the most intense scenes in contemporary cinema.
Winstone had once expressed the fact that he had been unsure about Kingsley’s ability to play a character like Don Logan, especially considering the kind of roles that he had previously taken on. “When you think about what he’s done,” the actor once noted. “I got beat up by Gandhi. But he went from playing Gandhi to playing Don, which just shows the talent of the man. He’s a great actor.”
In Spain, Logan, Glazer and the rest of the cast and crew waited out for the arrival of Kingsley, who had been busy making another film. Winstone was thinking to himself that Kingsley simply wasn’t going to work, but as their first meeting went ahead, it became clear that Kingsley was, in fact, the perfect man for the job.
“He turned up, and I had a party for him,” Winstone explained. “We had a lovely place on the beach. It’s a really beautiful place. So Ben’s coming, we’re gonna have a party for him, make him feel welcome and all of that. He turned up as Don Logan. This is how he works. I’m a bit wary of him, and he started to get on my nerves a bit, so I just quietly slipped backwards as he was talking, and I climbed out the window, and I fucked off.”
“He was driving me mad,” Winstone added. “That was our first meeting. Then we got together, and I honestly didn’t know how it was gonna work, but it’s funny how even you as an actor should think that. Of course it’s gonna work. The man’s a genius.”
If there were any doubts in Winstone’s mind as the production of Sexy Beast went ahead, they were quickly dispelled when Kingsley went on to deliver one of the most intense gangster acting performances of all time, proving that Gandhi really could flip his lid when he needed to.
