Ray Winstone<\/a>, who has played the London hard man and more over his career, shared insight into his career, including working with Angelina Jolie, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, and Gary Oldmam, during a masterclass at the 31st edition<\/a> of the\u00a0Sarajevo Film Festival\u00a0on Tuesday before receiving the honorary Heart of Sarajevo award in recognition of his \u201cremarkable acting career and exceptional contributions to the art of cinema.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked about the state of the movie business in the social media age, Winstone said: \u201cIt affects your approach, I guess, because it\u2019s all about sending tickets, isn\u2019t it? It\u2019s like anything today, it becomes a business,\u201d he said. \u201cWe see what\u2019s happening in Hollywood with Marvel and all that kind of stuff, the franchises. And we love watching those films. They are fun, but it kind of takes away from your cultural films, which are best for the actors, which are really active parts. It\u2019s probably getting more and more difficult to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n More from The Hollywood Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n Continued Winstone: \u201cAs for social media, if you\u2019re not on social media now, you\u2019re sometimes not even considered to be in a movie, because they want the fan base to come with that. \u2018You have to go on Instagram,\u2019 you know. But it\u2019s part and parcel of the job that you do now. Now, whether that\u2019s a good thing or not, I don\u2019t know. But if it brings people into the cinema and it creates more jobs and more films are being made.\u201d<\/p>\n Winstone concluded: \u201cBut I\u2019d like to see much more, I guess, cultural films being made. I think it\u2019s where the best cinema is.\u201d<\/p>\n The boxer-turned-actor, 68, first made a name for himself on the silver screen when he played a juvenile delinquent in Alan Clarke\u2019s 1979 drama\u00a0Scum, followed by his portrayal of tough-guy mod Kevin in Franc Roddam\u2019s\u00a0Quadrophenia\u00a0that same year. With those and his later roles, such as Gary Oldman\u2019s\u00a0Nil by Mouth\u00a0(1997) and Jonathan Glazer\u2019s\u00a0Sexy Beast\u00a0(2000), Winstone earned raves for combining muscle and intensity with vulnerability.<\/p>\n \u201dI had done a school play because I fancied a girl in the play, and I had enjoyed it,\u201d he shared. \u201cBoxing teaches you to respect an opponent. \u2026 You rely on the actors, the director, the crew.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked about the two versions of his first film Scum, directed by Alan Clark, the star offered: \u201cThe first version is actually a better film, because we were younger, and it\u2019s a film about young people\u2026and how they treat each other.\u201d He lauded Clark as getting good work out of him.<\/p>\n He also discussed playing a singer together with musicians from The Clash and Sex Pistols in Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains and \u201cgrowing old together\u201d with them, sharing that in his family, he grew up with singing songs, including Frank Sinatra.<\/p>\n Asked about starring in Gary Oldman\u2019s directing debut Nil by Mouth. Gary is probably of our our best cinema and stage actors\u201d and had written a script. \u201cI like films about social issues,\u201d including \u201cdeprived areas\u201d and drugs. \u201cI\u2019m from a working-class family,\u201d so he was familiar with such themes. Oldman is \u201cprobably the best director I have worked with\u201d because he knows acting.<\/p>\n The film is about abuse but he trusted all creatives on it and he was able to leave the violence and pain on set, while The War Zone with Tim Roth, about child abuse, \u201churt,\u201d Winstone shared.<\/p>\n Discussing Sexy Beast, he lauded Ben Kingsley\u2019s \u201crange\u201d from playing Gandhi to a psychopath in this film.<\/p>\n Winstone shared that he likes to play the bad guys as good guys and vice versa to make violence and the like more impactful.<\/p>\n Audiences also know Winstone as a mob enforcer in Martin Scorsese and Jack Nicholson\u2019s\u00a0The Departed\u00a0(2006) and, more recently, as the imprisoned drug boss Bobby Glass in Guy Ritchie\u2019s\u00a0Netflix\u00a0hit series\u00a0The Gentlemen<\/a>.<\/p>\n Asked about his work with Scorsese, the actor said he met the director in a London hotel and was supposed to play a policeman, suggesting to the man \u201cI call Marty now\u201d that he could play a different role. Scorsese liked his coat and asked if he could wear it for the role, which he did.<\/p>\n How was work with Steven Spielberg on one of the Indiana Jones films? \u201cSpielberg was great,\u201d he replied. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing when he makes films how he shoots, he films differently.\u201d He said he loved standing behind Spielberg and Scorsese watching them do their magic.<\/p>\n Clark was the director who likely influenced his acting most, Winstone shared, saying he learned all the basics from him and took his guidance as law.<\/p>\n A fan in the audience asked the star what it was like to work with Jolie in Beowulf. \u201cAngelina was fantastic. What an actress the girl is,\u201d he said. \u201cYou know, she\u2019s not just beautiful. She can really do the business and is a good kisser as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Which of the many characters or professions he has played did he like the least? \u201cThe pedophile,\u201d he said right away.<\/p>\n Asked about the best advice he ever received, Winstone said it was a criticism that his eyes looked dead in a scene, sharing that he learned right then and there that much of acting comes from and through the eyes.<\/p>\n What\u2019s next for him? \u201dI\u2019m doing some more of The Gentlemen,\u201d Winstone said in discussing current work, adding that he has also shot a movie about English snooker player Jimmy White.<\/p>\n Over his career, Winstone has also voiced Mr. Beaver in the 2005 fantasy epic\u00a0The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and appeared in such big-budget blockbusters as Black Widow and as Beowulf in Robert Zemeckis\u2019 2007 animated action film Beowulf.<\/p>\n \u201cHe is an actor who has captivated audiences for five decades with his great talent and undeniable presence,\u201d said Sarajevo Film Festival director Jovan Marjanovic<\/a>. \u201cWith honesty and intensity that resonate far beyond the screen, he has given us many unforgettable characters.\u201d<\/p>\n Winstone also captivated the masterclass with his humor, at one point sharing that he was feeling the red wine he had the night before. \u201cThe local wine is really good,\u201d he said to laughter.<\/p>\n Best of The Hollywood Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for THR’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source ca.news.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ray Winstone, who has played the London hard man and more over his career, shared insight into his career, including working with Angelina Jolie, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, and Gary Oldmam, during a masterclass at the 31st edition of the\u00a0Sarajevo Film Festival\u00a0on Tuesday before receiving the honorary Heart of Sarajevo award in recognition of his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1968324,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[26993,349195,348823,305425,345850,345852,21928,309280,31190],"class_list":["post-1968323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-angelina-jolie","tag-gary-oldmam","tag-gary-oldman","tag-martin-scorsese","tag-ray-winstone","tag-sarajevo-film-festival","tag-social-media","tag-steven-spielberg","tag-the-hollywood-reporter"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Ray-Winstone-on-Marvel-vs-Cultural-Films-Angelina-Jolie-Steven.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1968323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1968323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1968323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1968324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1968323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1968323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1968323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}