Ray Winstone’s drunk and disorderly ‘Star Wars’ audition: “Why don’t we both have a sleep and I’ll fuck off?”
A glance at his filmography makes it clear that Ray Winstone isn’t averse to the idea of taking on a decent-paying role in a big-budget Hollywood blockbuster, even if the common theme that unites most of them is that they’re a little bit shit.
Cate Shortland’s Marvel movie, Black Widow, wasn’t egregiously bad, but it wasn’t exactly memorable. Winstone signed on because he had confidence in the director, only for studio interference to dictate that he needed to reshoot almost all of his scenes as the villain, which left him begging to be fired.
It may have drawn in big viewership numbers on Netflix, and it was only released in March 2024, but can anyone honestly remember a single thing about Damsel? How many people can even recall that Winstone was also in Snow White and the Huntsman, Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, or the Point Break remake, for that matter?
As a working actor, the man’s got bills to pay, and it’s fair to say that whenever green screen is required, it doesn’t bring out his best work. Even though it’s set in a galaxy far, far away and features a myriad of humanoid and decidedly not species, the prospect of hearing Winstone’s unmistakable cockney brogue in a Star Wars movie would be jarring, not that it mattered when he tanked his audition.
He wasn’t even bothered about being hired, and spending the previous night on the lash meant his audition in front of Lucas himself was a short one. “It didn’t go well,” he admitted. “Had words and that was that. I’ve worked for George since, and he was fine. He didn’t remember. Or if he did, he didn’t take it to heart.”
Winstone doesn’t even remember whose lines he was reading, other than it being “the Princess’ father, or something like that.” Still, a night on the tiles didn’t dampen his professionalism. “I was pissed anyway,” he recalled. “I’d been out all night, and I turned up, and I knew I was wrong for the part as soon as I walked in, but instead of saying that, he relayed the message to me through someone else, and I took umbrage at that.”
The actor recalled to FHM that he was still drunk from the night before, and he assumed Lucas “obviously got jet lag” because he yawned all the way through Winstone’s audition. They both knew it was a doomed endeavour, but when the director gave him nothing but silence, he was asked a simple question: “Why don’t we both have a 15-minute sleep and then I’ll fuck off?”
Neither of them went for a quick kip, but Winstone did indeed fuck off, opening the door for Graeme Blundell to nab the gig as the delightfully named Ruwee Naberrie, the father of Natalie Portman’s Padme Amidala. Does he regret it? Of course not, sharing how “that sort of film would bore the arse off me, all that bluescreen work,” a lesson he obviously didn’t learn, looking at how his effects-heavy undertakings in the years since have panned out.
