Ray Winstone once came dangerously close to joining a galaxy far, far away, but his audition for a Star Wars prequel didn’t exactly go according to plan.
The Black Widow star recently revealed that he tried out for the role of Ruwee Naberrie, Padmé Amidala’s father, but things took a disastrous turn after he arrived to meet George Lucas “pissed.”
In a new interview (via Far Out Magazine), Winstone admitted:
“It didn’t go well. Had words and that was that. I’ve worked for George since, and he was fine. He didn’t remember. Or if he did, he didn’t take it to heart.”
The actor went on to explain that the mishap stemmed from a long night out before his meeting with the Star Wars creator.
“I was pissed anyway. I’d been out all night, and I turned up, and I knew I was wrong for the part as soon as I walked in, but instead of saying that, he [Lucas] relayed the message to me through someone else, and I took umbrage at that.”
Things got even more awkward when Lucas started yawning throughout the audition, something Winstone chalked up to “jet lag.” His response, however, to that was:
“Why don’t we both have a 15-minute sleep and then I’ll f*ck off?”
Needless to say, that line didn’t earn him the role. Instead, Australian actor Graeme Blundell was cast as Ruwee Naberrie in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith.
Still, Winstone isn’t losing sleep over it. In fact, he’s not sure Star Wars would’ve been a good fit anyway.
“That sort of film would bore the arse off me, all that bluescreen work.”
Ironically, the actor has since spent plenty of time in front of green screens, including in Marvel’s Black Widow, where he played the villain Dreykov. Even then, his patience with blockbuster filmmaking was tested.
Reflecting on that experience, he shared:
“I come home after finishing the job and get a call saying we need to do some reshoots. I say: How many scenes? [Cate Shortland, director] says, ‘All of them.’ So I said she should recast [the role], but I was contracted, so I had to do it.”
It’s easy to imagine Winstone’s no-nonsense attitude clashing with the polished world of Star Wars, but ya gotta love his blunt honesty.
