Vinnie Jones enjoys his reputation as one of Hollywood’s best at playing at a big, mean bad guy. “I love all the action stuff and I love being a good-looking villain,” said Jones, laughing. “There aren’t many of us left.” Jones got the chance to add another character to his lengthy resume of villains as a convict named Ewan McStarley in The Condemned starring World Wrestling Entertainment star ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin. McStarley’s a former member of the British Special Forces who was sentenced to death by the African military court for rape, torture and murder. Pulled off death row to appear on an illegal TV reality show, McStarley is one of 10 inmates who must fight to the death in front of millions of viewers for a shot at freedom.
A Few Blows Really Landed: Jones and Steve Austin were well prepared for their big fight scene, but both men still wound up getting knocked around a bit. “I’ve got pictures of the side of my head and down the side of my neck and I was bruised black and blue from that mammoth. We got into that scene, but it was weeks and weeks and weeks of building up to that fight. It was weird because we’d got there four or five weeks before the movie started and we practiced and practiced in this hangar with the stunt boys. It was near the end of the movie, the fight scene on the cliff where he hits me, and he’s hitting me and in no part of rehearsals was he supposed to start hitting me with the other arm! But he got so carried away, he was like, ‘Bang, bang!’ And I was like, ‘Okay, come on then!’ Then I tried to throw one, so we really got at it.
Afterwards the whole crew was cheering and clapping, and that’s as real as you can get. And that’s what we wanted, we wanted the camera in and we didn’t want to be [replaced] with the stunt men. The stunt men were so good and they taught us so well.”
Soccer vs Taking on ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin: “Well, soccer was – we’d train from 10 until 1:30 and that was it," explained Jones. "Until I started doing movies I didn’t know there were two seven o’clocks in the same day. …On this movie I’d leave at half past six and get home at half past eleven at night and it’s intense. It’s intense work.”
On Being the Worst of the Batch of Criminals in The Condemned: Even though he’s playing the meanest of the convicts, Jones still found something good to say about his character. "What I loved about it was the redemption at the end of it,” said Jones. “When he goes in and he looks that kid in the eye and he says, 'Do you enjoy watching all of this?' He was saying, 'What I’m doing is what I’m doing and that’s all part of this show.' When I sit there and I explain to him what’s made me like I am, in real life people don’t get that chance. But McStarley did get that chance when he sits in that leather chair when he says, 'You just think that I’m crazy. I’m not crazy.' And really, where is McStarley from? Well, maybe McStarley was working as a stock broker but he’s got put into this situation and it’s got carried away.
There was a movie with Sean Bean where he goes in as an undercover guy with the soccer hooligans and actually becomes one of them and when it comes to the time to pull him out he can’t, he’s too far in. I think that’s McStarley’s story. He’s gone in and he’s gone too far.”
On Keeping in Shape: If he’s not working on a film, then Jones does work out every day. “If I’m working, you just can’t do it. If I’m up at 6 in the morning and going to bed at 12 at night, it’s nonstop. You get half an hour either side and that’s for traveling. But tomorrow I’ll take the boys and train them all for soccer down at Crossroads School. We’ll have 25 of them, Anthony Lapaglia and Steve Jones… They’ll all come down and they’ll love it as well, so I’ll get my work out done there. But basically I’ll hit the gym if I’m not working.”
Up Next – Midnight Meat Train: Jones is currently at work on the movie Midnight Meat Train, based on a short story by Clive Barker. Jones said the shoot is going fantastic and Barker’s even been on the set watching them film. Jones, who had just completed a scene in which he was skinning Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson, also said things are pretty blood on the set. “Never seen so much blood. It’s literally big gallons of blood and we’re on the train and they have to keep throwing it in there. That’s the part of acting I don’t like. Like, change and I’m like, ‘Oh dude, don’t get too much blood on me,’” said Jones, laughing. “Then the wardrobe girls is saying, ‘No, please, you gotta do it, and I’m saying, ‘Calm down. I’ll just turn this way, look and the camera is over there.’”
And working with Japanese director Ryuhei Kitamurahas been easy. According to Jones, there isn’t a language barrier issue at all. “No, he’s great. It’s harder to understand Bradley Cooper than him.”
The Future of the X-Men Movies: Jones has no idea what’s going on with the X-Men film franchise. “Nobody knows. It’s in the lap of the gods. That one’s in the lap of the gods but from this movie, I finish next week, I finish on the 4th and then go onto a Tarantino project called Hellride. My manager said I’d be doing a back to back movie, so this is his version of a back to back movie. I walk off the set of Hellride, off the set to the airport, get on a plane to London, get off the plane and go straight to the set and do my first scene. So that’s a real back to back – not two days in between.”
Jones will be playing Billy Wings, “the main bad dude,” in Hellride which also features Dennis Hopper, Larry Bishop, and Michael Madsen.
Also in the Works – Bog Body: “It’s like a comedy horror. It’s set in Ireland, they used to get… out here they’ll bury people in the desert but in Ireland they bury people to get rid of them in the bogs in Ireland. This woman comes to build a house and disturbs one of them and it’s my mate Adam Fogerty, the one who has the big fight with Brad [Pitt] in Snatch, big Adam? It’s funny. I saw the trailer yesterday and it’s really funny. I play this deer hunter. I’m probably the straightest one in the movie. It’s very tongue-in-cheek.”
