Ray Winstone, 68, reignites 20-year Jack Nicholson, 88, feud with savage rant: ‘If he was younger, I’d have KNOCKED HIM OUT!’
Ray Winstone has opened up about his tumultuous experience working opposite Jack Nicholson on the set of the 2006 gritty drama, The Departed.
Winstone took on the part of Frenchie in the crime thriller, the former right-hand man of Nicholson’s character, mob boss Frank Costello, in a role that saw the two regularly share scenes with one another.
The acclaimed drama bagged an Academy Award for Best Picture as well as numerous glowing reviews. It also boasted a star-studded cast alongside Nicholson and Winstone; Mark Wahlberg, Leonardo DiCaprio, Alec Baldwin, Matt Damon, and Vera Farmiga all star in the Martin Scorsese thriller.
But despite the awards recognition and critical plaudits, behind the scenes, Winstone and Nicholson were not as chummy as their twisted and criminal alter-egos were in the movie.
20 years on from when they filmed the movie, Winstone has revisited exactly why the two didn’t get along – and it appears time hasn’t exactly been a healer for the two Hollywood stalwarts.
Winstone spoke to Eamonn Holmes and Paul Coyte on their podcast Things We Like with Eamonn & Paul, where the discussion soon turned to showbiz culture and how celebrities will often fake their fondness for one another in front of the camera.
“I’ve upset a few people before, not too many, but why would you say you like someone if you don’t?” Winstone told the GB News presenters. “But I’ve seen people on shows, ‘Everyone’s lovely, everyone’s wonderful’… No, they’re not!”
“You didn’t like Jack Nicholson?” Eamonn asked, to which Winstone explained: “No. We just didn’t get on.
“I just found him… Listen, he’s getting older, and maybe there are a lot of things going on with him. I didn’t like him, I thought he was so far up his own a**e it was unbelievable.
“And he was very rude! He was very rude to me, he was rude to my wife, if he had been a younger man, I’d have definitely knocked him out.”
Attempting to adopt a more diplomatic approach, Winstone went on: “But you’ve got to give him… because he’s an older man, much older than me… He’s fantastic at what he does, brilliant at what he does.
“He’s a great writer as well, by all accounts, at least that’s what he kept telling us.”
Ultimately, though, Winstone’s empathy for the One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest star wore thin. “But at the same time, I can’t make an excuse for him,” he continued.
“My grandfather was an old man, but he was a gentleman. He was a lovely man. So f**k him, basically.
“Why should I say I like him? I don’t. You ask me the question, you get the answer.”
The trio soon moved on with the rest of the podcast, but this isn’t the first time Winston has addressed his differences in opinion with the now-88-year-old.
Speaking at a Bafta Life In Pictures event in 2014, Winstone admitted he initially had high hopes for working with Nicholson.
“Me and Jack did not seem to get on too well. Maybe he was going through a funny time. Everyone else loves him to death – I just wanted him to be a great guy,” he said. “We just did not click.”
And in 2024, ahead of the release of Netflix’s The Gentlemen, Winstone was asked why Nicholson might have taken a dislike to him. “I have no idea. You always look at yourself on set and think, ‘Ooh, I’m alright. I get on with everyone. I do what I gotta do and boom, I go home,'” he told the Independent.
“But it doesn’t worry me. It doesn’t shock me. You clash a little bit. He’s not the first person I’ve clashed with. He won’t be the last.”
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Despite the bridge between the two actors sounding well and truly burned, Winstone still admitted he wouldn’t rule out the chance to work with him again.
However, he added to the Independent: “I don’t like arrogance. There’s no need for it.
“This kind of feeling of being above everyone else. We all end up in the same hole in the ground. But some people have this smarmy little side mouth. You know, they make cracks for everyone else, but not for you.
“You think, ‘Oh, really?’ And there are different ways of dealing with that. You either say your piece and tell them to shut the f*** up. Or you punch them in the mouth.”
Things We Like with Eamonn & Paul is available to stream and download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major platforms now.
The full Ray Winstone episode is also available on YouTube now.