The Gentlemen is a new film from Guy Ritchie, which is full of gas-pumping, shoot-em-up fun. The film stars Hugh Grant and Matthew McConaughey among others, as gangsters trying to be the top dog in the London crime scene. But why did Hugh Grant and Matthew McConaughey have nothing to do with one another during filming?
At an exclusive preview, Grant and McConaughey addressed why they did not have much to do with each other on the set of The Gentlemen.
Grant revealed: “We only met a few minutes ago… we don’t actually have any scenes together in the movie.”
He, of course, was joking about their only just having met, but McConaughey replied: “We do talk about each other in the movie a lot, as you can see.”
This is very much the case, as Grant plays Fletcher, a grimy, sleezy character who has been trailing gangster Mickey (McConaughey) and his London operation.
On seeing he could probably get more money for his story from the gangsters themselves than anywhere else, Fletcher accosts one of Mickey’s henchmen, Raymond (Charlie Hunnam) to extort a bit of money for himself, as is revealed in the trailer.
This is where the film finds itself in the opening, and the premise sees Fletcher telling Mickey’s story – despite the pair never even crossing paths.
Speaking on how he came to be in the film, Grant explained: “The whole thing was a surprise to me.
“I was walking through Sloane Square on the way to my wedding and a man fell off a bike in front of me.
“So I picked him up and it turned out it was Guy Ritchie’s assistant and behind him was Guy Ritchie…
“He [Guy] said, ‘Thanks for picking him up – by the way I’m going to send you this script.’
“So he sent this thing and I rang him up and said, ‘I can’t do this, forget that,’ and he said, ‘No you can.’
“And I said, ‘Oh alright then,’ and this is it.”
For McConaughey things were far more simple, as Ritchie sent him the script while he was at home in Texas, but he was shocked by another aspect of the script.
He said: “It was a very short script, it was about 72 pages, very short.
“But as you know, now working with Guy, you can make a three hour movie with a 20 page script.
“With Guy Ritchie, he’s very good with dialogue on the day.”
Of course, while Ritchie may be good at adding dialogue, his scripts also flesh out interesting, layered characters, and The Gentlemen is no different.
Grant is appearing on this week’s The Graham Norton Show, no doubt to discuss more about how he ended up as a dodgy character with the Irish host.
But for the time being, at least, his meetings with McConaughey may be tied to their dedication to promoting their new movie.
The Gentlemen is out in cinemas on New Year’s Day