"Kind of takes away from your cultural films": Ray Winstone talks about Marvel and cultural films at the Sarajevo Film Festival

Ray Winstone, who once headlined Gary Oldman's Nil by Mouth, opens up about the current state of cultural cinema during this year's Sarajevo Film Festival. Winstone was being awarded the honorary Heart of Sarajevo at the festival to recognize his long and "remarkable acting career and exceptional contributions to the art of cinema."

During a conversation with the moderator, Winstone looked back at the past when films presented cultural nuances more faithfully, as opposed to today's cinema, plagued by a money-minting mindset. While reminiscing about his favourite films, he wished there were more cultural films being made in the social-media-dominated landscape.

“The French do it, they make their own cultural films. The Germans do it. Hopefully you’ll do it more here [in Bosnia & Herzegovina], and that’s the way it should be. That’s where good filmmakers come from. The trouble is [UK actors] get dragged to America and work with studios, and they get their hearts broken. It’s the fact of making stuff about you – that’s what I like doing, and what I like watching,” said Ray Winstone.

Winstone also recalled working with Oldman in his 1997 drama film as a foul-mouthed father in a working-class family, partially inspired by Oldman's formative years. It represented the themes that Winstone was familiar with and offered a kind of mirror that the commercial movie projects seldom explore with such a fine understanding. That led to the English actor also reflecting on Marvel and other blockbuster franchise projects that have reached such a state that they have threatened the existence of other cultural films.

“We see what’s 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, [and] which are really active parts. It’s probably getting more and more difficult to do that,” Ray Winstone stated.

Ray Winstone reflects on social media and his experience of working on Black Widow

"Nil By Mouth" Special Presentation - 66th BFI London Film Festival - Source: Getty

Ray Winstone started his acting career in the early 1980s, when the internet wasn't omnipresent, let alone social media. So, people would not be vetted through their social media presence, nor would they be required to be active on any such platform. However, the studios have been actively looking for a cast with a stronger social media presence.

It has started impacting production to the point that even someone like Maya Hawke, the daughter of successful actors like Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman, was asked about her "Instagram followers" in order to get a movie funded. On a similar note, Ray Winstone said,

“As for social media, if you’re not on social media now, you’re sometimes not even considered to be in a movie, because they want the fan base to come with that. ‘You have to go on Instagram,’ you know. But it’s part and parcel of the job that you do now. Now, whether that’s a good thing or not, I don’t know. But if it brings people into the cinema, and it creates more jobs, and more films are being made.”

Winstone also spoke about his experience working on Black Widow, the 2021 Marvel project directed by Cate Shortland. He praised Shortland as a director but likely was not pleased with the reshoots.

“I thought, ‘I’m not doing it now, I’m done,'” said Ray Winstone.

The star believed reshoots were not required for his performance, but he did them out of contractual obligations. He will soon reprise his role in the second season of The Gentleman, the Netflix crime comedy series by Guy Ritchie.

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Edited by Sangeeta Mathew