Vinnie Jones, Ac-Tor

How on-set advice from a movie legend turned the Wimbledon warrior into a bona fide film performer...

Lots of people were surprised when Vinnie Jones turned up in Guy Ritchie’s Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels. Even more people were surprised when the Wimbledon ruffian turned out to a pretty decent actor. And as for the movie career the former footballer then went on to have, well… you get the picture.

By the time I came to interview the former Welsh international in 2002, Vinnie had six films under his belt. In Sydney to promote the soccer-centric remake of Mean Machine, Mr Jones had clearly grown tired of answering questions about who he thought would win that year’s World Cup (“I don’t care about England - I’m Welsh”) and what went down between him and Paul Gascoigne way back when (“We’re mates now. We go fishing together.”). Time to change tack, I thought.

“Vinnie, in football it’s often said that playing against great players elevates your own game. Is the same true of acting?”

And so it was that Vincent Peter Jones began talking in hushed tones about his craft.