Sexy Beast star recalls support from Ray Winstone after landing role
James McArdle was grateful for the original star's well wishes.
Sexy Beast actor James McArdle has revealed he had the full support of the original film's star, Ray Winstone, before production began on the streaming prequel.
Set approximately 10 years before the acclaimed comedy-drama, the Paramount Plus series finds Gal Dove (McArdle) living in east London with his unstable friend Don Logan (Emun Elliott).
They have an opportunity to take their fledgling criminal enterprise to a whole new level by going into business with gangster Teddy Bass (Stephen Moyer), but doing so could cost them what little morality they have left.
The original 2000 film starred Winstone as Gal, Ben Kingsley as Don and Ian McShane as Teddy, with the former two receiving particularly high praise for their work.
McArdle told RadioTimes.com that he approached the original Gal after landing the lead role in Sexy Beast: "I texted Ray Winstone and he sent me this lovely message back. A really gracious lesson in wishing good luck.
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"And it really meant a lot and it gave me the confidence to go on because, obviously, it's quite daunting to take on these iconic roles, and you want to pay respect."
He continued: "I idolised that performance and it’s flawless in my eyes, so you want to pay respect to that. I also have to use my imagination to take the character into different aspects that we haven't seen of Gal before.
"So, to have that communication with Ray actually gave me the courage to do that."
The character of Gal Dove seemed tailor-made for Winstone, a real-life east-ender, but McArdle had to mask his natural Glaswegian accent for the role.
He explained: "I do have to transform for a lot of my work – there's not often calls for me to be close to myself. So it's something I'm used to [and] something that I really take great pleasure in.
"I had to find a way that helped me get to the heart of the character. To me, it was a more psychological element – the movement and the accent were just the garnish on top."
A particular inspiration for the actor, whose past credits include Mare of Easttown and Andor, was a memorable scene from the film in which Gal orders calamari at a restaurant after receiving some worrying news.
McArdle added: "I used to watch that scene again and again and again. For me, it just distilled every aspect of his character."
Sexy Beast is available to stream on Paramount Plus. New episodes weekly. Get a seven day free Paramount Plus trial at Amazon Prime Video.
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Authors
David Craig is the Senior Drama Writer for Radio Times, covering the latest and greatest scripted drama and comedy across television and streaming. Previously, he worked at Starburst Magazine, presented The Winter King Podcast for ITVX and studied Journalism at the University of Sheffield.
