Ray Winstone avoided booze on new drama after Ireland binge

Actor Ray Winstone vowed to avoid boozing on the set of new British drama Moonfleet in Ireland after spending weeks in a drunken haze the last time he was shooting on the Emerald Isle. The Departed star plays an 18th Century smuggler in the upcoming two-part Sky TV drama, and he headed to Dublin, County Kildare, and County Wicklow to shoot scenes for the swashbuckling show.
The trip brought back memories of his last time filming in Ireland, when he starred in 2004 movie King Arthur alongside Keira Knightley, and he was determined to avoid the local bars after becoming sucked into the country’s legendary drinking culture.
Winstone tells the Irish Mirror, “When I was on King Arthur, we were out all the time. I think everyone was drunk on that job for four and a half months. I actually moved out of Dublin – I was staying at the Four Seasons – and I went: ‘I’ve got to get out of Dublin because I’m just p**sed all the time’.
“I said: ‘I’ve got to go’, so they found me a little place… I said: ‘I’m going to live there, on an old farm place, I’m going to live there for the duration of filming’. And nothing changed. I was on the p**s (drinking) but the only difference was that I was looking at mountains instead of the town of Dublin… But I’m getting older now, I can’t do that so much anymore, can’t be out working in the morning if you do that.”
Asked if he had been boozing while filming Moonfleet, the 56 year old replies, “Not this time, we haven’t had the time… For this film, it was the time (that prevented drinking), but if I’d been younger, I think I would have made the time. That’s probably where I made a mistake in the past, I just couldn’t wait to get out and probably stay out all night, and go straight to work the next morning. But I just can’t do that no more (sic), physically and mentally.”