Vinnie Jones: Bullet Tooth Tony Speaks-- The Condemned (Q&A)

As mentioned earlier, Last Friday I covered press for the forthcoming action flick The Condemned which stars the WWE pro wrestler "Stone Cold" Steve Austin (the Longest Yard) and Vinnie Jones(Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch) here's the copy from my session with Vinnie Jones, who totally eschews the "hard as a coffin nail" persona that he'd perfected in Guy Richie films, my recorder ate the first five minutes of copy but I still had the last half hour of what went down...read on and find out Bullet Tooth Tony's thoughts on David Beckham, charity and grabbing nut sacks on the soccer pitch...


Vinnie Jones:... on the sixth I go on to a Quentin Tarantino project called Hell Ride...my manager said,'we're dong a back-to-back movie' so this is his equation of a back-to-back movie: I walk off the set of Hell Ride, off the set, to the airport, get on the plane, fly to London, get off the plane and go straight to the set to do my first scene-- so that's a real back-to-back, not two days in between.

Q: What're you playing in Hell Ride, one of the Satan's Bikers or something like that?

VJ: Billy Wings, the main man.

Q: You going to do anything else with Guy Richie?

VJ: I was going to do this one thing with Guy but (he's) connected with so many things and you never know in this game. You never know, I mean I wanted to do Revolver with him but...there's nothing for sure.

Q: Well, since you're good friends with him and everything how did he deal with that whole publicity thing about him and Madonna's adoption?

VJ: I can't answer that, that's personal...

Q: Well what can you say about that film Bog Body?

VJ: I you can, it's like a comedy-horror ,if you like. It's set on an island and on an island they bury people in the bogs (when they die) and this woman comes to build a house and disturbs one of the grave sites. Its with my mate, Adam Fogerty (Gorgeous George) , the one who has the fight with Brad Pitt in Snatch-- he's the Bog Body.

Q: What part do you play in that?

VJ; I play this deer hunter but I'm probably the straightest character in the movie.

Q: Would you ever do a broad or romantic comedy?

VJ: I hope so, I mean I do hope so. We just did a movie with Vanessa Redgrave which went really well, that's being screened, I mean, you know, just trying to get it out there-- it's an independent movie. But there's a love interest in that, I play a reporter and I'm trying to get to the bottom of stuff and it's sort of like, is there a relationship or isn't it but yeah, I would adventure in every part of this business, really. You know, to get better.

Q: Well here, people get scrutinized when they come in from another field be it soccer or wrestling or music or whatever. Do you think there's enough of a closeness, in performance-related pursuits to merit switching over?

VJ: Well, you know, what happened with me is, I think I was natural enough-- in my 15 years as a soccer player, I've had many a camera shoved in my face. And I've done every major chat show in England so that was my apprenticeship, if you like. You know, some people, if you put a camera in front of them, they just shake and it could happen to you...you could ask all sorts of questions but if you sat in this seat, you might go to pieces and that's what happens, people do. My apprenticeship was being in this (interview) situation for so many years as a soccer player.

Q: Has David Beckham called you up for any acting advice?

VJ; No, and he hasn't asked to borrow any dollars off me yet, either. (laughs)

Q: You think he moved here to L.A. just so that he could break into acting?

VJ: You know, that's the rumor but I'm not interested, I don't get involved with all of that-- whatever people want to do, you know? If he thinks he's going to just walk off the plane and...well, somebody's probably going to give him a good job and then wish they hadn't. But you can't-- this town's too tough for that, you know that, we all know that.

Q: Maybe he'll get into Scientology and get an acting coach or something...

VJ: Well you know he's going to do that, all that bullshit-- of course he is. (starts laughing) That's exactly what's going to happen, so you don't have to ask me any more questions about him.

Q: Over here is tougher than England?

VJ: There's no jobs over there, that's why I'm here. There's no jobs over there, dude-- not for actors. Its very hard, you know and even the movie I'm doing in London is from here.


Q: Do you receive any compensation for that classic picture of you "marking" Newcastle United's Paul Gascoigne at all?

VJ: No, I didn't own it, the newspaper owned it. Even the guy that took it Monty Fresco didn't own it, the newspaper, the Mirror Group owned that. And every now and then, they'll send me ten copies that I can sign for charities. That was my thing as well, my fee for Lock, Stock, I gave it all to charity. And people say, well you know, 'why did you do that' and I say 'for luck, really, I don't know, whatever.' Easy come, easy go, I don't know.

Q: So what do you like doing in your spare time?

VJ: I like fly fishing. I like golf.

Q: You any good?

VJ: Not so good at golf but I'm a good fly fisherman. I've just done a documentary in Patagonia, for ESPN on fly fishing. In an ideal world, I would love my own nature program-- that's what I'm getting at to try and do. But the movies, thankfully, are coming thick and fast so I haven't got that gap (spare time) to produce my own wildlife show but I'm quite fascinated with wildlife.

Q: What do you do it for, serenity?

VJ: Dude, when I'm out fly fishing-- on X-men, (after a shoot) they'd be like 'what are you doing, now?' And I'd be like 'I'm fly fishing-- what did you expect I'd do while filming the X-men?' (laughs) Literally, I'd just get into the car and go out toward any logging road, and stop the car, get the rod out and have a go at it. I'd slide down to the banks and I'd be there all day.

Q: With all of that in mind, what do you think is the biggest misconception about you?

VJ: (whispers) "My dick size" (starts laughing)...A lot of people say, like when they meet me, that I'm a nice guy-- I'm a generous fella. I love giving things, you know.

Q: You travel all around the world to shoot these films you're in, is there any particular place that you really want to see?

VJ: Well, I want to go to Costa Rica and fish for Marlin and I want to go and bone fish and the third thing is to go and catch some Silver Salmon up in Alaska, so, I'm going to do that in August.

Q: You do any fishing while shooting in Australia?

VJ: Yeah, on the Gold Coast. I'd get a boat and a guide and we'd go out at first light and we used to go, it was great fun.

Q: You work out every day or what, Steve Austin says that he's not doing it so much these days.

VJ: If I'm not working, if you 're working, you just can't do that-- you're up at 6 in the morning, you go to bed at 12 midnight and it's non-stop. You know, you get a half an hour on the side and that's for traveling. I'll take the boys tomorrow and I'll train them all for soccer, we have 25 guys like Anthony LaPaglia and Steve Jones and so we have a soccer team and they love it as well, so we're all getting a workout there. But its basically, I hit the gym when I'm not working.


The Condemned opens nationally on Friday, April 27th