00:00Let me go Miss Miller. I was dating a girl named Andrew Miller at the time and I was like,
00:04do I stay in this relationship or do I go?
00:06And that song made up my mind. Let me go, let me go, let me go.
00:10You are destined to rule.
00:14Forge your own path.
00:17Move away from Bobby Glass.
00:19Hi, I'm Alex from NME and today I'm joined by two very friendly actors who can be quite scary when
00:24they want to be.
00:25It's Ray Winston and Giancarlo Esposito. How are we doing?
00:28You're doing well, thank you.
00:30We're here to talk about The Gentleman Season 2 of course, in which you both play criminal kingpins who will
00:35do heinous things to get what they want.
00:38But do Stanley Johnston and Bobby Glass have a line that they won't cross and if so, where is it?
00:43I don't. Bobby Glass doesn't, I don't think there is a line.
00:47Not even with his kids?
00:49That's debatable because I think he loves her very, very much but to survive in the world that he's in
00:56and the way he plays it,
00:57I think the brutality is always there, you know?
01:01Yeah.
01:01I usually try and find that moment of there's that weakness in someone but I find it very difficult to
01:07find that with Bobby
01:08because to be where he is, it's a brutal old world out there.
01:15What about Stanley?
01:16Well, Stanley Johnston has nothing to lose and everything to gain.
01:20I think he'd love for you to think that he has a line and he's very appropriate and he's of
01:25course an Anglophile who's really adjusted quite well to being in England.
01:31And I think he's learned the protocol.
01:34But I think the line that you would imagine he wouldn't cross, you will never see.
01:42So he really has the ability to understand money and power in that regard and how that directs political actions
01:49and him rising within this society.
01:55Ray, I'm so glad that I've finally got NME to interview you because I've always wanted to ask you about
02:01one of my favourite cult films.
02:03Yeah.
02:03Which is the 1981 film, a very sort of NME relevant, I think, Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains.
02:09Oh, right.
02:10In which you get to do one of the, probably the coolest roles ever, you get to be in a
02:14band.
02:15Yeah.
02:15A punk band called The Looters with members of The Clash and The Sex Pistole.
02:18Yeah, there's Paul Cook, Steve Jones and Paul Seminole.
02:22Yeah, yeah, yeah.
02:22They're still mates there.
02:24Yeah, but that must have been one of the coolest singers ever.
02:26Well, it was and it was really funny because when I was only a kid, I'd only just got married.
02:30Yeah.
02:30And I'd been married 47 years, so that's how long ago it was.
02:34And I was rehearsing this in Vancouver on a mic, with a mic stand they gave me and the songs
02:40and all that kind of stuff.
02:41And I went to my wife, you know, just married.
02:44I said, I'm not a rock star, I can't do this.
02:46She went, no, you're not.
02:48You're an actor.
02:50I went, oh yeah, right.
02:53And that's the penny drop.
02:55It took my wife to tell me, not a director or anyone like that.
02:57It took my wife to tell me that.
02:59And that was quite a moment because you can imagine we were all young guys at the time.
03:05And, you know, it was all anti this and anti that.
03:07And, you know, this big punk kind of scene was going on.
03:11And it was quite slow in Vancouver.
03:13They were just finding punk, you know, in a way.
03:15Yeah, yeah, yeah.
03:16So we had this following and all that and we'd done gigs and all that kind of stuff.
03:20So it was a big moment.
03:22I remember coming back looking like a punk rocker and my dad went, are you sure?
03:27Anyway, it lasted about two weeks and I went back in the normal series and all that.
03:31But yeah.
03:31I've actually got a picture of you if you want to see one.
03:33I'd love to.
03:34Wow.
03:36Come on.
03:36It's me and Similin.
03:37Yeah.
03:38You look so cool there.
03:39Oh my gosh.
03:42So cool.
03:43I actually look like my middle daughter, Jamie.
03:46Because you sang the songs, didn't you?
03:47Yeah.
03:48Did you know that they released them subsequently?
03:51Yeah, yeah.
03:51The professionals, the professionals.
03:53Yeah, yeah.
03:54Because the professionals released this big compilation about 10 years ago or something.
03:58Right, yeah.
03:58And you're on the second disc.
03:59Yeah.
03:59So it's all the songs again, but it's sang by you.
04:02Yeah, right.
04:02So, I mean, yeah.
04:04When you're in your train of...
04:04Oh, I'll have to look for that.
04:05I'll have to get that, yeah.
04:07The Duke.
04:09He's evolving.
04:10What if he's evolving into something volatile?
04:13We need him, and he fucking needs us.
04:16Final question, and we all always ask.
04:19If there was one album that you had to choose, that you always go back to, which would it be
04:24and why?
04:25Dark Side of the Moon.
04:26Yeah?
04:26Tell me a bit about yours.
04:27Yeah, I just feel like it's the meditative acid trip that I would always want to take.
04:34You know?
04:36It's inspiration.
04:38It's...
04:38Why wait?
04:39Yeah, no, it's travel within an alternate universe to me.
04:46I just feel like yet it's grounding, you know?
04:50Money.
04:51I mean, you could just go through the songs.
04:52Money.
04:52Yeah.
04:53It's a game.
04:54It's just...
04:55It reflects so much of our world.
04:58Do you remember when you first heard it?
05:00Oh, my gosh.
05:01I was very young.
05:03I was probably 13, 14 years old, and I thought, what is this?
05:06The other was...
05:07If you didn't ask for another, but...
05:08You can have as many as you want.
05:10Bohemian Rhapsody.
05:11Oh, yeah.
05:12You know, Freddie Mercury.
05:13You know, let me go, Miss Miller.
05:16I was dating a girl named Andrew Miller at the time, and I was like, do I stay in this
05:19relationship, or do I go?
05:20And that song made up my mind.
05:21Let me go, let me go, let me go.
05:23That's what I was like.
05:25Please!
05:25Please!
05:27But anyway, yeah.
05:28I don't know.
05:29As an actor, and I think...
05:31Because you were into opera when you were younger.
05:34Yeah, my mother was an opera singer.
05:35My father and mother met at a La Scala in Milano, so music was always a part of my life
05:41in many ways.
05:42And certainly classical music, it soothes the savage beast, and I love it quite a bit.
05:47And I feel like our lives are music and movement and art, which is why I'm an actor.
05:53There's always...
05:54It's alive to me.
05:55It's active.
05:56And I think that I'm blessed, because I'm not walking around looking at the sidewalk
06:01or my shoes.
06:02I'm looking for this.
06:04I'm looking for this.
06:05And that's what allows me...
06:08It's not the pocket.
06:09It's not the money.
06:09It's not the riches.
06:10It's the connection.
06:12And to me, that is my religion, right?
06:17Because we've moved so far away from it.
06:19You know, yeah, I love The Gentleman, because it's about family.
06:23Truly.
06:24Underneath it all, it's...
06:25Murderous families.
06:27Yeah.
06:27Well, it's about loyalty.
06:28It's about betrayal.
06:29It's about family.
06:30It's about money.
06:31It's about, you know...
06:32In a way, it's about...
06:33Look, you've seen season two.
06:35I have not.
06:36But Stanley Johnston is, in a way, who is pushing Eddie.
06:41Who are you?
06:42Yeah.
06:42You are this.
06:43This is who you are.
06:45Did you forget?
06:46This is your ancestry.
06:48Yeah.
06:48Right?
06:48So remember that and be empowered to be able to take hold of that, because you are the next
06:55person to carry the baton, right?
06:58So in a way, all of our lives reflect that in many ways.
07:02You know, we have the power, and then we have the power, right?
07:06And the power is in the knowing.
07:07And it's why I love working with Guy, because he really is examining all of these scenarios
07:15that reflect, in his life, obviously, in our world.
07:19And it's reflective of all that.
07:21I love how he got to that from Bohemian Rhapsody.
07:23No, he always brings it back.
07:24Don't worry, he's a pro.
07:24He knows what he's doing.
07:25What about you?
07:26Your album?
07:27I'd have to start with a single first.
07:30Okay.
07:30And that would be Smile by Charlie Chaplin.
07:33Oh, wow.
07:33And I will listen to that many times.
07:37Probably Nat King Cole singing it.
07:39Yeah.
07:40You know, the words are fantastic, you know.
07:43It can bring a tear to your eye, but it can make you smile at the same time, you know.
07:47Albums can be, I've got so many, I can go across the board, you know.
07:53But for the sake of it, I'd probably Hunky Dory, David Bowie.
07:57Oh, brilliant.
07:57You know, or Ziggy Stardust.
07:59I mean, Bowie, I'm a big Bowie fan.
08:01Were you a Bowie kind of teenager?
08:03The music, not so much the dress.
08:06But, you know, I mean, I go from Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, the classics, you know.
08:12I love a bit of Horst.
08:14I like Opera Puccini, you know.
08:16But, you know, take it all the way through to punk rock, you know.
08:20So, we've seen the receipts.
08:21Yeah, I mean, so for me, music's the mood you're in.
08:25But Smile is a song that I think is kind of just beautiful.
08:30Yeah.
08:30It's a beautiful song, you know.
08:32I saw the little Italian quartet, the boys, singing just outside the Palermo.
08:40I've seen it.
08:42And it was electrifying.
08:45It's been an absolute pleasure to chat music with you, too.
08:47Thanks so much.
08:48Thanks a lot.
08:48No, but thank you.
08:50I have a clear idea of what I want these days.
08:54What's that?
09:01Everything.
09:02Nothing.
09:03Just...
09:04Just...
09:05La la la...
09:07La la la la...
09:07La la la la...
09:08La la la la la...
09:11You
