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Lots of British director Guy Ritchie\u2019s films have mayhem about them \u2014 serious crime, some knifing, shootings and a bit of maiming, plus some well placed jibes and smooth talking. His Cockney crime comedies \u2014 as they\u2019ve been called \u2014 such as \u201cLock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels\u201d and \u201cSnatch\u201d follow disjointed paths, plot twists and pile on the body count. Well, in \u201cThe Gentlemen,\u201d<\/strong> his latest criminal character study, the violence is ratcheted up and is complicated by some underlying politics or social implications \u2014 the legalization of THC-infused marijuana, cannabis, hootch, weed.<\/p>\n Pot baron and transplanted American Mickey Pearson (Matthew McConaughey<\/strong>) has built a criminal enterprise in England establishing his gang as the country\u2019s biggest distributor of this presently illegal stuff. Adamantly against any other kind of illegal intoxicant, he realizes that with the coming legalization, it will change his fortunes for better or worse. So he figures, better to get out now and cash out his business by selling it to rival Matthew (Jeremy Strong). Once word is out that he\u2019s maybe cutting a deal, it triggers schemes, bribery, blackmail and murders in an attempt to steal away his empire.<\/p>\n The film kicks off with Pearson seemingly assassinated in a bar. Oily private eye Fletcher (Hugh Grant<\/strong>) \u2014and maybe an aspiring screenwriter \u2014 has been employed by a sleazy media mogul [slyly played by Eddie Marsan<\/strong> as a Rupert Murdoch clone] to investigate Pearson after he had been rebuffed by the pot-repreneur. But before Fletcher hands over his destructive findings, he offers the deadly dirt to Pearson’s right-hand man Ray (Charlie Hunnam<\/strong>) in seeking a counter-offer.<\/p>\n As the immoral provocateur reveals his investigation\u2019s details \u2014 alternating between the opening scene to past and present \u2014we\u2019re offered an inside look into the brutal British crime underworld, its host of colorful characters and the dastardly deeds various factions they will perform to steal Pearson’s business and position at the top of this bloody pecking order.<\/p>\n Besides his crime dramedies, Ritichie\u2019s been rebooting various genre franchises from Sherlock Holmes to Man From UNCLE to Aladdin. Yet even in those films, the criminal mind has never been too far from Ritchie\u2019s storytelling center and shoot-from-the hip directing style. Of this one\u2019s cast, some are veterans of Ritchie\u2019s ways; for others, it was their first time.<\/p>\n Though Oscar winner McConaughey has racked up his share of accolades, awards and hosannas \u2014playing everything from a hip stoner (a curious nod here) to Rom Com idol to tragic arthouse characters \u2014 he\u2019s not played a criminal mastermind quite like this.<\/p>\n Best known as one of Downton Abbey\u2019s central figures, the petulant Lady Mary Crawley, English actor Michelle Dockery<\/strong> knows a thing or two about being aristocratic and hard nosed. who plays Mickey\u2019s wife Rosalind, Surely she was able to apply some insights from that experience here.<\/p>\n Malaysian born Henry Golding<\/strong> might have faced the challenge of \u201cCrazy Rich Asians\u201d hot male lead, but here as psycho Tong gangster Dry Eye he has to cope with a frenzied pace and whacked out set of allies and enemies \u2014 Pearson in particular.<\/p>\n The three intersect when he ruthlessly betrays both his enemy and friends in order to grab Pearson’s fortune and position. To do so, he threatens Pearson\u2019s precious partner and that triggers the ganja king\u2019s ruthless response, reverting to his most primal bloody behavior.<\/p>\n For this trio of actors, working with Ritchie provided a challenge and engaging experience \u2014 something they enthuse about here when they sat down at the Whitby Hotel to discuss the film recently.<\/p>\n Michelle, how was it for you to be the only lady in this cast?<\/strong><\/p>\n Michelle Dockery:<\/strong> It was great. This was a really, really, really fun job. And I was brought into it quite late in the day and without much preparation, but I just flew into it, and loved it. Guy works in this way \u2014 you come into the set and you’ve learned your lines, you’ve spent all night learning your lines and then, you read the scene out loud and he goes, “Nah we’re not going to that.” So we all had to learn quite quickly that that was the way it was going to be.<\/p>\n How was that experience?<\/strong><\/p>\n MD:<\/strong> Once you’ve given in to it, it’s great. At first, it was frustrating, but you realize that he actually comes up on the day with something even better than what was on the page. For me, adrenaline is actually really fun to work with within that sort of spontaneous environment. So you go on set and you’re scared. There’s always that initial tense apprehension about, \u201cWhat am I going to do?” “How am I going to play this role?” And in some ways, if you get more thrown into the deep along with that, you work with the adrenaline.<\/p>\n Matthew McConaughey:<\/strong> And we were already shooting. So we were already a well-oiled machine and knew each other. We knew the rhythms of the day. She pops in and we’re already rolling, and you have to come in, and each time, you have to measure and nail those two pages of dialog.<\/p>\n There’s a sort of ease with this film. It belies a whole process of getting into the film. Even when you’re the bad guy or you’re going to be taking out the bad guy or whatever, once you get the piece, you just go into it.<\/strong><\/p>\n Henry Golding:<\/strong> What Guy was talking about yesterday [at the TV interview sessions] was that it’s essentially about those changes that we do on the day, in the moments literally with him behind the monitor shouting at you, “Nah, try this one! All right, rolling!” And you have to integrate that because you’re in that headspace as actors. He’s in the moment as a director, he has the ability to bounce ideas off us that can enhance either the tenseness of the scene or the ferocity of whatever’s happening at that moment, so it becomes truly effective. He sees it as a sort of editing in a way, and how he wants the movie to come out. And so those little changes are integral, and help make for that kind of constant beat that he has, a constant ticking clock.<\/p>\n As actors, explain how Guy was able to break down your character because you’re all playing very distinct personalities. What was that process like?<\/strong><\/p>\n MM:<\/strong> I got to play the heavy. The guy was a very successful businessman who created his own universe, he has a great partner in his wife and together, they’re a team and equally dangerous in different ways. They’re very territorial with each other and what they’ve created, and understand that in this world you can’t really trust anybody. So, actually, the only person that Mickey would ever talk to about any of these things would be Rosalind, his wife, and never at all in a sentimental way. No compassion, there’s no time for that. If you get too compassionate in that world, you’re done. You\u2019ve got to play offense, offense, offense, but also in different ways.<\/p>\n Dry Eye comes in and plays offense, but is hasty and plays his hand too early. As Mickey, I’m already established, I’m the king of the jungle and I’ve got my institution. I’m ready to sell it for a fair price and fade out and spend some time with my wife. Well, in this world, no one pays a fair price, so my institution is sabotaged and there’s a kind of “God damn it! I’ve got to get up. I’ve got to get back. I’ve got to go bite somebody again.”<\/p>\n That’s what Mickey\u2019s used to doing. Probably when we met, I [Mickey] was probably on the front lines doing what [Ray played by Charlie Hunnam] does for me. And so you created your own universe, you have your own set of rules. Mickey follows those rules until his wife’s threatened, and then the rules are off. And it’s like, “Ok, there’s no honor among thieves anymore. There are no more verbal threats. There’s no more talking about the deal. It’s all about to eliminate the adversary.”<\/p>\n Surely you\u2019ve receive many scripts from different writers. What made you say, “I want to be in this?”<\/strong><\/p>\n MM:<\/strong> This was the kind of Guy Ritchie film I wanted to be in. I wanted to play with Guy Ritchie in the sandbox. This is the type of film that Guy Ritchie made and is very specific and original to him. You can see the trailer, and in the end, you have to say it’s a Guy Ritchie film. That looks like a ‘Lock Stock,’ that looks like ‘Snatch.’ That feels like it, smells like it. It’s the playground that I wanted to play within.<\/p>\n What\u2019s good is that you are all defining these characters that have no other universe than this, and you get to do the defining. Even if you do or don’t die.<\/strong><\/p>\n HG:<\/strong> It goes back to the question of what the process was like. Guy has a spectacular way of collating these characters that just pop up. There are many filmmakers who create characters for the reason of storytelling and you don’t get a glimpse into who they are. But, as we were discussing yesterday, that every single one of these characters could have their own movie and you kind of have a glimpse of their world. It\u2019s exactly what I was saying \u2014 we are the masters of our domain individually and we’ve all got our set of rules that we live by. And when you clash all those together in a moment like this, fireworks are bound to happen. But that’s the trick of Guy’s storytelling, that it’s so rich in character, you just don’t know who’s going to outlast the other because everyone has an equal footing, in a sense, in their own kind of crazy predatory way.<\/p>\n MM:<\/strong> In these films, Guy creates a very clear dynamic, meaning, everyone is the master of their own universe or at least believes they are, even if they’re delusional. That sort of confidence and sense of identity is fun to watch, and you know it can’t last. You know, in the movie, not everyone can remain standing and you don’t know who’s going to go or how they’re going to go, but you’re going to have a good time watching it.<\/p>\n People are going to watch this and be surprised at how it all unfolds. Did it surprise you reading it on the page?<\/strong><\/p>\n MM:<\/strong> I remember going to Guy a couple of times going, “look, I can see this is changing a lot from the original script. I just want to make sure I still win in the end.” [laughs]\n HG:<\/strong> I do remember that in the initial draft our stand up wasn’t as climactic as it was. I think everybody had their way of owning their own characters. They gave suggestions on how to create more of a story within the script. So for myself, I thought the original ending was very anticlimactic. I think Dry Eye is almost the bridge to the old world, Mickey. And why aren’t we seeing more of a glimpse of that ferocity of young Mickey like coming out? Because we’re in a position where Dry Eye is overstepping his boundary and going into his world when it comes to being together in that last little moment. So I was like, “we need some sort of huge scuffle and something more dramatic.” And originally, I was to run out of the office, get run over by your impending car, and then you sort of tie me up. And that was the original plan. I was like “something more is going on now. I think the audience wants to see something.”.<\/p>\n MD:<\/strong> I think at one point when we were shooting that scene, Guy said, “oh, I dunno, maybe we’ll do something different. We’ll just add more days and, you know, maybe you’re locked up somewhere and Mickey comes and finds you somewhere.” It’s like, oh, so we might do reshoots?<\/p>\n MM:<\/strong> Evidently, Guy Ritchie tends to reshoot his films. We ended and everyone goes, see you in a few months! We’re all like “It’s not going to be done in a few months!” And they go, “no, we’ll be reshooting in a few months.”<\/p>\n HG:<\/strong> Guy is so enthusiastic, especially in this world, that he’s so comfortable and so iconic for. There was talk of following the original script, of me kidnapping you and you go on an Old Boy rampage. So I was like, \u201cWe’ll be back in April.”<\/p>\n That sounds like a perfect way to work in a movie that’s all about marijuana\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n MM:<\/strong> Yeah, that’s the business, but there’s nothing relaxed about it. There’s nothing… not even the tone and the speech of this movie, anything, about sitting back and taking some respite. It’s quite the opposite.<\/p>\n How was the fight scene between you two? Where you very afraid of hurting her?<\/strong><\/p>\n MD:<\/strong> That ended up being way more physical than we thought it would be. On the page, it was like, there’s a tussle between them. Then we were rehearsing the scene and they brought the stunt doubles in and we watched what they did. In any job, those scenes are very well-rehearsed and choreographed, so it looks much more painful than it actually is because we work it out and work with great teams. It got to a point where you could see our faces more when he’s grabbing my hair, that’s when it’s us and, you know, the magic of moviemaking. It definitely turned out to be something much more physical, but there’s a payoff, of course. It was pretty great in the end.<\/p>\n HG:<\/strong> And yeah, because the edit is so often different from the script. You have this ticking timeline of\u2026 Mickey’s in a car crash, this is happening at the office, is he going to make it back in time? There’s this huge [drama]\u2026 Will Dry Eye get the better of it? It [goes] into this amazing crescendo. So I loved that day in the end. Yeah.<\/p>\n It seems that this movie is all about gangs in a way; everybody is in little gangs. But there is like the press baron whose staff is like his gang. All these different groups are pitted against each other. Did it seem that way to you as you were going through it or how did it feel?<\/strong><\/p>\n MM:<\/strong> Well, you see it on the script, but also let’s remember, you and I didn’t have one scene together. We just got to know each other a couple of weeks ago in England. You and I had two scenes together (at Henry) you and I have a lot of scenes together [addressed to Michelle], but I never saw Colin Farrell [who played the Coach]. So there are these little pods. Obviously, when scheduling a movie, you go, “OK, we’ve got 20 dollars and we’ve got Colin Farrell. Let’s pack that into these nine days of shooting.”<\/p>\n Michelle, you weren’t really the typical trophy Gangster wife. You’re calling the shots both to the men here, do you think this is where life is right now, women calling the shots?<\/strong><\/p>\n HG:<\/strong> If my wife has anything to say about it, yes!<\/p>\n MM:<\/strong> It’s a great subject and one that I almost hesitate to bring up in a short form here. Ultimately, we’re on our way to getting to a place where competence calls the shots. Not women call the shots, not men call the shots, not whites calls the shots, not blacks call the shots, but competence calls the shots.<\/p>\n HG:<\/strong> You brought up an amazing point of how people think, Mick’s only weakness is his wife, but it’s also his strongest. His weakest link is also his strongest link. And that is empowering.<\/p>\n MM:<\/strong> Well, that’s when the rules were… And now the rules are shifting. There are rules of the universe and there are rules that you follow. There’s honor among thieves who follow those rules. Even what you did was amongst the rules. Yet, hey! here comes the young buck coming up to challenge the line. There are consequences to [rebuffing] the war rules, but then for Mickey to go and put his wife in harm\u2019s way\u2026 Well, all the rules are off. 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