As I sat down in the green room at the Harquail Theatre with actor and footballer Vinnie Jones on the night of Thursday, 29 Sept., I wondered how my fast-approaching interview with him on stage was going to go.
He was to be the keynote speaker at the Breast Cancer Foundation gala on 1 Oct., but as that had been sold out for months, organisers felt it would be nice to give others the opportunity to spend an evening listening to his stories. Hence, the Harquail night.
A few days prior, Hurricane Ian was making a beeline for Florida, and so rather than have our celebrity fly through Miami from the UK the day before, the decision was made to put him on the direct British Airways flight. Unfortunately, that meant he would have to board the plane in London on the Thursday, and would have maybe two hours at his hotel at the most after landing in Cayman, before being driven to the theatre.
Vinnie was clearly exhausted when I saw him in that green room. We were to start the interview at 7:30pm – 1:30am UK time, and it was going to be finished (including intermission) around 10pm: 4am in the UK. He was going to have been up for nearly 24 hours straight by the time it was all done.
My heart sank. Was I going to have to do all the talking? I’d studied football like a university student for weeks, but I certainly wasn’t confident about speaking on the subject ad nauseum.
The clock struck 7:30pm. Showtime. I walked out onto the stage, gave a brief introduction, and then invited the man himself to come out. As the crowd roared, his face lit up, we sat down, and it kicked off. Turned out, I had nothing to worry about.
Football career
Vinnie was born in Watford, UK, and showed an early talent for playing football.
“It was part of my family’s life,” he said, saying that they’d always be watching games when he was growing up.
He was already on the path to a future career in the sport when he was 12 years old, but his parents’ divorce a few years later significantly affected his life.
“I was so angry,” he confessed, adding that he and his father fell out, and so he threw his belongings in a “black bin liner”, and left the family home to couch surf and stay with friends. He didn’t play football for three years, essentially putting his one passion on the back burner at a time when he probably could have used it the most.
It was when he was working on building sites that he got his chance to rejoin the game. He was offered a place at Wealdstone club, which was his first semi-professional position. That led to signing as a professional with Wimbledon, thanks to the wisdom of then-manager Dave ‘Harry’ Bassett, who knew enough about Vinnie’s skills to feel he would be an asset to the team.
It didn’t take him long to prove himself. One of the highlights of Vinnie’s career was when Wimbledon played Liverpool at Wembley for the FA Cup in 1988. Liverpool, the clear favourite on the day, was handed a shock loss when the score was 1-0 to Wimbledon at full time. A video of ‘Vinnie highlights’ was played on the big screen at the theatre on the interview night, to much shouts and applause from the audience.
When Wimbledon won the FA Cup, Bobby Gould was the manager, but even as the team rejoiced on the field, Vinnie did not forget his old friend.
“I looked for [Bassett] up high in the stands, and lifted the trophy, saying, ‘This is for you, Harry!’,” Vinnie said, emphasising that he knew Bassett deserved a lot of the credit, even as Gould was lauded for his efforts.
The ‘Crazy Gang’, as members of Wimbledon were dubbed by Daily Mirror sportswriter Tony Stenson, built themselves a reputation for their antics on and off the field. Vinnie admitted that his drinking at the time brought out the beast in him, which often led to him and his teammates getting into brawls at pubs and other venues.
One of the most notorious moments in Vinnie’s football career was when Paul ‘Gazza’ Gascoigne of Newcastle United got too close for comfort behind the Wimbledon midfielder. Reaching back, Vinnie grabbed Gazza by the crotch… and squeezed hard. The moment might have just been a story shared without proof – considering those were the days before mobile phones – if an intrepid photog hadn’t overheard something that made him suspect he should get in place and have his camera ready.
Monte Fresco, the legendary Mirror photographer (who died in 2013) caught the magic moment.
“A lot of people thought it was staged… it totally wasn’t,” Vinnie said, adding that he asked Fresco afterwards how he got the shot.
He replied that when Vinnie had gone for the throw-in, he’d overheard him tell Gazza that he’d be “back for him”, and so he got himself into position, and sure enough, got rewarded with one of football’s most memorable pictures.
Despite getting a reputation as a hard man on the pitch, Vinnie was able to back it up with sporting talent. He went on to play for Leeds United, Sheffield United, Chelsea, back to Wimbledon, and Queen’s Park Rangers. At the same time he was enjoying a second stint at Wimbledon, he was also on the Wales national team.
One of the most interesting records he set in his football career was in March 1992, when he was playing for Chelsea. He got a yellow card after only three seconds against Sheffield United.
Films and television
We had already spent an hour on stage, and I had barely touched on Vinnie’s football background, when it was time for an intermission. When we came back, the focus switched to his extraordinary pivot to the big screen.
Who would have thought his first film would be such a huge hit? Guy Ritchie and Matthew Vaughn – the director and producer of ‘Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels’ – certainly had faith. What they didn’t have was a boatload of cash.
“When we met for coffees, I ended up paying the bill,” Vinnie said, to much laughter from the theatre audience.
Ritchie and Vaughn had contacted Vinnie’s manager, saying they felt he would be perfect in the part of Big Chris. Despite the footballer having no previous acting experience, he signed up and was on board.
The budget was just over a million dollars – chump change for Hollywood – yet the young director and producer didn’t have the funds to finish filming. It was none other than Trudie Styler who stepped in and saved the day.
She basically said she would get us the $300,000 we needed, but she wanted Sting in the film, Vinnie said. “So that’s how he ended up in it.”
Due to a change in cast, Vinnie also found himself with a bigger part than originally had been written. He had scored very well with test audiences, and so extra scenes were added, including the iconic sunbed scene where he kept slamming the lid down on his unfortunate subject.
“The actor in the sunbed – that was Jimmy Tarbuck’s son!” he shared.
No one involved in the flick had any idea that it would become so popular at the box office. Word spread about the film with its own unique style, banter and humour. The critics gave it great reviews, which fuelled the fire, and it became a cult phenomenon. Not only did it end up making over $28 million at the box office, it also won Vinnie the Best Newcomer Empire Award. Not bad for a first-timer.
The movies that followed firmly cemented Vinnie’s place in the film industry. He was not a one-hit wonder.
He got the role of The Sphinx in ‘Gone in 60 Seconds’ with Angelina Jolie, Robert Duvall and Nicolas Cage, to name just a few of the A-list stars involved.
“As soon as I heard Nic Cage’s name, I was in,” Vinnie said.
He reunited with Ritchie and Vaughn for their next film – ‘Snatch’ – which had Brad Pitt playing Irish traveller Mickey O’Neil. Vinnie introduced Pitt to some traveller friends of his to help learn the accent and mannerisms.
“He ended up staying with them for ages, playing with their kids, and eating meals in their caravans,” Vinnie said. “He was just great.”
It was clear that acting was in his blood and this was going to be the new path. Vinnie moved his family out to Los Angeles, and they ended up renting a large estate.
One day, he and his wife Tanya saw a man moving about on the property. “I went out to him and asked who he was,” Vinnie said. “He replied, ‘Hi, I’m Bill Withers – this is my house’, with a smile.”
That was the start of a friendship that continued until Withers passed away in 2020.
Throughout their time living in the US, Vinnie and his family had their share of interesting neighbours.
“I was outside my house, and I could hear this ‘thwap-thwap-thwap’ constantly,” Vinnie said. “It was getting irritating, so I looked over [the fence] to see what the noise was, and it was Pete Sampras playing tennis!”
No matter how many films Vinnie made (and there were a lot of them, as well as TV appearances), he never forgot his roots.
We showed some pictures on the stage screen of when he was only 12 years old, and he pointed out many faces with whom he is still friends to this day. Often, he would fly his crowd from the UK over to LA so they could share in experiences like film premieres.
Vinnie has worked with everyone from John Travolta (‘Swordfish’) to Hugh Jackman (‘X-Men: The Last Stand’), Ron Perlman (‘The Big Ugly’, which Vinnie also produced) and Denzel Washington (‘The Magnificent Seven’ 2016), yet working on the farm he owns in Sussex is one of his favourite things to do. Well, that and playing football and golf.
He has also been sober for nearly 10 years.
Carrying on
Vinnie tragically lost his beloved wife Tanya to cancer in 2019, and he admits that even now, it doesn’t seem real.
Despite dealing with his grief, he carries on, is still working, and loves spending time with his friends and family.
He certainly showed some strength on that night at the theatre on 29 Sept. He had been travelling all day, and had no rest before getting on stage, yet he kept the audience entertained for over two hours, and if he’d stayed for longer, they would have happily heard more.
Over the years, Vinnie Jones has certainly built himself a reputation – not all of it flattering – but anyone who was there that night definitely saw another side of the person who was once called the hardest man in football.
I’m certainly a fan.
If you would like to learn more about Vinnie Jones and read his stories, buy his books ‘Vinnie: The Autobiography’, ‘It’s been emotional’ and ‘Lost Without You: Loving and Losing Tanya’.
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