The actor and debut director chatted with MyM magazine about pulling in favours and getting the Lock, Stock gang back together…

Actor Jason Flemyng, recently starring in Jamestown on Sky, but still well-known for his breakout role all those years ago in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, has finally stepped behind the camera to direct his own movie. Aside from the impressive cast he’s pulled together, what really surprises is how much they throw themselves into this tale of vampires under siege.

“They’d have to really be into it. There was no money,” Flemyng tells MyM from the Jamestown set in Budapest. “I’ve been very lucky because I’ve done 100-plus movies and all those guys – including Annette Crosby, who I worked with on one of my first jobs – they’ve all been mates forever. When you make the call, you realise being smarmy and taking people coffee and being polite and hopefully not upsetting anyone is probably a good way to go! You get paid back in spades.”

He’s not kidding. It’s really something when you can lure Marvel’s Daredevil to the set of your low-budget film. “Charlie Cox didn’t charge me anything. He said, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll do it. I’ll fly myself over and sort out hotels. Just tell me where to be and when. He’s a superhero for Marvel and they didn’t want him to do it, but Charlie was amazing. He said, ‘I’m going to do it, so you just work out how to make that happen.’”

The film also provided a chance for the Lock, Stock alumni to meet up once more. “Dex and Stathe are two of my best friends in the world, and Nick’s always been hugely supportive and he’s made his own films,” Flemyng says of Dexter Fletcher, Jason Statham and Nick Moran. “I thought I’m never going to get past Stathe’s manager but Stathe was like, ‘I’ll help any way I can,’ so I said be in it and he said, ‘That is not gonna happen.’ So I thought if I can get myself directing, Dex and Nick into the film, and get Stathe over to help me with the fights, that would work. So he came down for two nights and helped me design that Chen fight in the barn. I didn’t completely need him to do it but I love him to pieces and I wanted him to be part of it. And I knew it’d be a good gag for the press, that it was the four of us back together again.”

We also asked Jason Flemyng to tell us about his favourite things, in our regular My Media column back in MyM magazine Issue 65. Here’s what he chose…

12 ANGRY MEN
“I think it’s the perfect film. It’s not theatrical what Sidney Lumet did in 12 Angry Men but it is theatrical. The idea of putting 12 actors in a room who have nothing to lean on except their performances and stories is magical. That’s why all those massive films struggle – not to make money, but struggle to find validity from critics. Because the story and the acting and the performances are secondary to special effects. For me the nirvana of filmmaking is to sit and watch a film and be utterly entranced by it, and with 12 Angry Men all you’re doing is sitting and watching people talking.”

THE LONGEST DAY
“The conceit and the bravery of making a film using that many actors, with that many scenes and with that many directors, and it all working perfectly – which it does – is amazing. I’m off to see Dunkirk tonight and I was watching shots from The Longest Day on YouTube this morning so I’m really excited to see Christopher Nolan’s war film.”

SPARTACUS
“Those epic, epic biblical movies blow my mind and that’s what I grew up watching. Spartacus works both politically and epically. It’s the ultimate film of a socialist uprising, the working class rising up against their oppressors. It’s every socialist revolution that’s ever happened. But they were first and their leader was Jesus, and he had a little bit more to say than some of the later guys. It’s the story of David and Goliath, the underdog rising up, and I’ve always been very moved by that.”

THE HANDMAID’S TALE
“I’ve got twin five-year-old boys and I haven’t read since they were born, but they’ve just started school so I’ve started reading again. I’m getting to sit and read James and the Giant Peach. There’s a great actress called Pasty Ferran, who’s not really known filmically but is a big noise in the indie theatre world. She’s in Jamestown with me and has been feeding me books. I’ve just got The Handmaid’s Tale because I struggled a little bit with the TV show. It’s done really well but I haven’t quite got it, so I’ve gone back to Margaret Atwood’s book to read that and see if I can understand why people are loving it and I’m not.”