“I was in his trailer more than I was in mine. We were just hanging out, just like the old days, really.”
New Netflix series The Gentlemen sees Guy Ritchie returning to the world he created for his 2020 film, and also sees him reunite with Vinnie Jones, star of his first two films: Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch.
Jones plays Geoff Seacombe, the groundskeeper of the central character’s estate in The Gentlemen, and, while speaking exclusively with RadioTimes.com alongside co-star Joely Richardson, he explained what it was like to re-team with Ritchie on the project.
He said: “Guy and myself have come a long, long way since the Lock, Stock and Snatch days. I think he was warmed that I was on the set and I was warmed that we were reunited. I’d reunited with Matthew Vaughn a few years ago on Kingsman, so it was just wonderful.
“It’s like your brother’s directing it and you’re in a movie, that’s kind of how it is, that’s really the best way to describe it.
“I’m working on my younger brother’s movie. You’re gonna do your best. But I think it was a big deal to everybody.”
The Gentlemen follows Eddie Horniman, a soldier from an aristocratic background who unexpectedly inherits his father’s estate and Dukedom.
However, he soon comes to find that the estate is, and has been for many years, home to a cannabis empire.
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Jones explained what it was like on set, saying: “The cast are asking me all these questions, ‘How is he? Should I do this? Should I do that?’ I’m like, ‘Relax, just chill out, don’t go on about it’.
“I’d go and have breakfast with him most mornings. So I was in his trailer more than I was in mine. We were just hanging out, just like the old days, really.”
Richardson then asked him whether he ever thinks about when he and Ritchie first met, adding that “it really quite changed your life didn’t it?”
He responded: “It changed all our lives. Guy was running around for two or three years with the script, he then met Matthew Vaughn, they then asked to meet me at Stoke Poges. I’ve got a picture somewhere of about six months later or something like that, and I actually saw one about a month ago, on Snatch.
“We were out and about, there was me, Brad Pitt, and Guy, Matthew, and Jason Statham. And I said to Guy the other day, ‘we all looked about 12 years old’. It was amazing.
“We were all sitting around my mate’s house having a bit of dinner, his mum had made us a dinner. And I said to Guy the other day, ‘Have you got that?’ He’s got it somewhere… It was insane.”
The Gentlemen will be available to stream on Netflix from Thursday 7th March 2024. Sign up for Netflix from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.
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