‘I don’t like arrogance’: Ray Winstone on healing Guy Ritchie rift and acting with Jack Nicholson

Mind your own business!” bellows Ray Winstone. “What are you, a policeman?” He’s kidding. I think. We’re doing an interview to promote Guy Ritchie’s new Netflix TV series, The Gentlemen, and the London-born star is reacting to my inquisitiveness, but with a bit of prodding, he’s prepared to share his views on Jack Nicholson, the Oscars and a certain actor who insulted him in front of 250 people and is going to suffer the consequences (“He was rude. He was f***ing ’orrible... but his time will come!”). When it comes to fighting talk, Winstone’s the daddy.

Born into an East End family, 67-year-old Winstone’s been acting since his teens and, with the help of Alan Clarke, Gary Oldman and Jonathan Glazer, revolutionised British cinema. In the past couple of decades, everyone from Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg to Darren Aronofsky and Robert Zemeckis has fought to work with him, though the receptionist at the Corinthia Hotel fails to get even the tiniest bit excited when I mention his name. Ray Winstone, the insouciantly pugnacious star of ultra-violent classics Scum, Nil by Mouth and ? “Sorry,” the receptionist says, “I’m 21. I don’t watch old movies!”