Jason Statham On Why Guy Ritchie's Snatch Took Some Licking

Some thought it might prove the writer-director's undoing. Instead the stylish heist comedy helped make its leading man a star.

It’s one thing to make a great debut movie, it’s quite another to direct an impressive follow-up. The film industry is littered with people who began with a bang only to then make whimper after whimper. In terms of those who’ve broken that mold, the king remains Quentin Tarantino who followed the impeccable Reservoir Dogs with the peerless Pulp Fiction. And the British equivalent? Some would say you need look no further than Guy Ritchie.

Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels was the rare feature from over here that did very well over there. Not so well that anyone would say Guy Ritchie had broken the US but he was certainly on the Hollywood radar; so much so that, when he came to cast his heist comedy Snatch, he could recruit two of the coolest actors in America, Brad Pitt and Benicio Del Toro.

Being a decent bloke, the former music video director didn’t forget those who’d got him to the dance in the first place. “Guy’s very loyal,” explains Jason Statham whose big break Lock, Stock… was. “He was never going to forget the boys. Me, Vinnie [Jones], Jason Flemyng, Alan Ford – we all got another go round. And Guy being Guy, he was still doing things his own way. Like with Ade [the well-fed gentleman who plays the hapless Tyrone] – he was just a mate of Guy’s who he thought would be good in the movie. He wasn’t a trained actor or nothing. Guy just had a feeling about him, and the rest is history.”

Add Messrs Pitt and Del Toro to the aforementioned lineup and you have the makings of a pretty laddish production. “Oh, Snatch was a laddish shoot alright,” Statham smiles. “You shouldn’t be allowed to have that much fun making a movie. It was just banter every minute of every day. That, and there was lots of fining. You got fined for not being funny, you got fined for being boring, you got fined for falling asleep – we were sitting on a lot of money by the end of the shoot. What did we do with it? We spent it in very laddish ways!”

All these years on, Statham – who was a world-class diver before he turned to acting – is among the hottest action stars around. But while the Expendables and Transporter pictures have turned him into a household name, it’s clear he still cherishes the time he spent working with Ritchie.

“I’ve got many plans to work with Guy again,” says our man with a firm nod of the head. “The only question is, how many films does he want to do with me? I just owe him so much – you know, he gave me a career. I love his films, I love the way he makes movies….”

Snatch 2 remains a possibility then? “Oh, I’d love to see Snatch 2,” he chuckles.
“I have a lot of plans for Snatch 2!”