Anyone who lived in Cleveland during the 1970s will know the name, and the legend, of Danny Greene; an Irish-American mob enforcer who attempted to single-handedly shoot his way to the top of the criminal underworld during that time, yet was unanimously loved by the people of the community; he was dubbed “the Robin Hood of Collinwood”, and is the subject of the soon to be released biopic Kill the Irishman.
Showing how Greene earned his status as “the man the mob couldn’t kill” by instigating “the war that crippled the mafia”, and surviving numerous assassination attempts, the Jonathan Hensleigh (Armageddon) written and directed picture features an all star cast that includes the likes of Ray Stevenson (Rome), Christopher Walken (Catch Me If You Can), Vincent D’Onofrio (Full Metal Jacket), and Val Kilmer (Heat), and in order to celebrate its upcoming release on Blu-ray and DVD we caught up with lead actor Ray Stevenson (who plays Greene in the movie) to talk about Danny, the dangers of filming in Detroit, and everything from The Three Musketeers to explosions, G.I. Joe, job offers, and the weather.
What first drew you to Kill The Irishman?
Ray: I was filming The Book of Eli and got a phonecall from Jonathan Hensleigh; the director and writer of it; and we arranged a meeting for when I got back to Los Angeles, and part of it was just his enthusiasm for the story; I wasn’t even aware of it, but when I started reading the script it felt kind of familiar, and I was thinking… “I’ve heard this story. How do I? I know it.” Sure enough I then remembered seeing a thing called ‘American Mobsters’ on television, and it was the story of Danny Greene, and I remembered bits of it from the live footage that we ended up using in the film. Obviously Jonathan’s script was the biggest draw ever, and it scared me; it was like “Can I really pull this off?”; so i jumped at the chance to do it.
The script must have been a big draw, because it’s drawn such an impressive cast… what was it like working with Chistopher Walken, Val Kilmer, and everyone else?
Ray: Amazing! The thing is that Val Kilmer, Chris Walken, Vincent D’Onofrio, Steve Schrippa [The Sopranos]; the list goes on; they are all striking leading men in their own right, and they have an incredible presence; which I think is quite wonderful, because it was like the Wild West then, the mobsters of the time, the gangsters of the day, and even the police officers, they were larger than life, they were the genuine article walking down the street right in plain view – you would see the heads of the families, the people who really were names – and casting guys like this to play these roles was inspired. It was certainly interesting on set, and it was nice that there were no shrinking wall flowers or anything, everthing and everybody was present.
What do you think of portraying someone like Danny Greene as a kind of hero, and a Robin Hood type character?
Ray: I like to think that we didn’t go out to do that, but he was like that already; in his own lifetime he was called “The Robin Hood of Collinwood”; but we didn’t glamorise him or redeem him at all. He’s a violent man, a criminal, an enforcer, but whats fascinating is that its not a movie about gangsters and mobsters, but it’s just about a guy who was on his own personal journey; almost like a rights of passage, a grown-up’s rights of passage (what we’re all looking for a sense of identity or whatever), and his journey just happens to be couched in this very violent world; and it’s also been so well received by female audiences, which, for such a male-centric movie, I think the greatest testimony to the film is that female viewers have gone to see it, and got it, and enjoyed the movie.
Did you research the part much?
Ray: There was quite a bit of research material available; there are quite a few ‘records‘ we can look at *laughs*, and obviously all the footage, the live TV footage, newsreels, and all that sort of stuff, there’s the book To Kill The Irishman, and all the character’s that are still alive, but eventually you get to a point where you have to stop that; because you’re not making a documentary, you’re making a movie, and telling this tale, in the end you have to put all that stuff down and just make the story.
So you have to put a lot of yourself into the role as well then?
Ray: Well that’s inevitable, because you’re not trying to do a Madame Tussauds representation of it, but you’re telling more of the emotional content of the story, and showing this man’s journey of self-discovery through a very violent world.
Did you find it easy to relate to Danny Greene then?
Ray: I don’t know. Time will tell!
“One of our trucks ended up with seven bullet holes in it while we were filming… Detroit is a dangerous place… you’ve just got to roll with it.”
– Ray Stevenson
There are a lot of explosions in film. Were there any mishaps or anything on set?
Ray: No. It was a low budget movie, shot for under $10 million, so we only had one go at these things and everybody had to be on point; I mean hopefully whenever there are pyrotechnics around everybody’s on point anyway, but if there were any mishaps we couldn’t reset and go again. The amount of preperation and concerntration just making sure that everything was prepared as much as possible and checked, and rechecked, and ready to roll, then the countdown came, they set the camera and go, and everyone had to be extremely focussed as well, because we didn’t have time either; we shot the whole movie in 7 weeks, and I think it looks like a $30 million movie and we shot it for less than $10 million, which is a testament to everbody involved.
Watching the film it looks like you were filming in some pretty rough areas. Was there ever any trouble on set?
Ray: Well yeh, Detroit is very much like the Wild West at the minute; General Motors have gone bankrupt, and there’s such a lot of poverty; downtown and central Detroit was once such a thriving hub, but it’s now just full of burnt of shells and husks of buildings, and you can see some amazing big properties which would have belonged to the industry tycoons, but they’re just sitting there empty while there are slum neighbourhoods right next to it with rundown properties and not a lot of regeneration going on. When you think that this is the home of Mowtown music and the car industry, well, the bastards just stole everything, they stole everything from everybody, and then asked for their $30 billion payout and got it, and then asked for another one and got it! but none of it ever appeared on the streets of Detroit.
There was one horrible incident, a guy was shot in the neck outside some supermarket at night; we were driving to and from the set, and it was one of the drivers who was ferrying people across who said it was seriously about 30-to-45 minutes before the ambulance arrived, and the guys just sat there with their lights on, waiting another 35-40 minutes for the cops to get there, because the ambulance crew won’t go in without a police escort; it’s a known gang area, and if it’s a gang member they’re trying to resussitate then there’s a good chance a rival gang will start taking pot-shots at the ambulance crews.
It was a pretty dangerous area then?
Ray: Yeh, kinda. You had all that sort of shit going on, and one of our crew trucks ended up with seven bullet holes in it one night; I’m not sure what it was about, some kind of altercation; so you had to keep your wits about you, but at the same time I must say the people of the Detroit – and I can’t stress this strongly enough – they could not have been nicer; they know how much it meant to have a film made in Michigan, and they couldnt have been more accomodating. The trouble all came from a very small fraction of desperate people and trouble makers. You’ve just got to roll with it, it’s like the Wild West out there now, but I just hope they get back on their feet, because that’s a city with a great history.
The majority of the people obviously appreciated you being there then?
Ray: Oh completely. They are living with it day to day, everyday, and really appreciate what it means for the community to have movies made there.
And now, after having the crew’s trucks shot at, and making a movie where people are constantly trying to blow you up, you’re moving on to play an explosives expert in G.I. Joe 2?
Ray: Yeh. Firefly!
And how’s that going?
Ray: It’s great. I haven’t blown anything up yet, but when I do… *laughs*! We’re here in New Orleans, I’m looking out of the window now, and we’ve just had a huge marsh fire, and I don’t know how many miles it is but the place has been blanketed in this fine mist of smoke, and it’s now 96 degrees outside.
Warm enough for you then?
Ray: Oh yeh. and just in time for hurricane season!
“I like the warrior aspect to some of the characters I’ve played… nobody wakes up in the morning and thinks ‘I’m going to be a bad guy‘… but Danny did take somebody’s head off with a golf club.”
– Ray Stevenson
Getting back to The Irishman…
Ray: Before you ask… there’s not going to be a sequel! *laughs*
Danny is kind of loveable rogue type character; he does bad things but you can often see why…
Ray: Well yeh exactly, I mean nobody wakes up in the morning and thinks “right, I’m going to be a bad guy”, but then he did take somebody’ head off with a golf club, and there’s the whole indiscriminate nature of the collaterol damage whenever you blow stuff to shit; bombs are a pretty indiscriminate weapon of choice.
Are you drawn to characters like that, and do they reflect you at all?
Ray: I like the warrior aspect, such as when I played Pullo [in HBO’s Rome], they’re people you wouldn’t want to be against, but there is something within everybody’s nature like that, and I think they’re often just much more interesting, fuller drawn, characters. So far I’ve played quite a few of them, but I wasn’t a warrior in my latest film; Jayne Masnfield’s Car; which I’ve just shot with Billy Bob Thornton [Armageddon].
And who do you play in that movie?
Ray: I play this guy called Carroll Caldwell, and John Hurt [Alien] is my father! Robert Duvall [The Godfather] is in it, Kevin Bacon [Footloose], Robert Patrick [Terminator 2], Billy Bob Thornton of Course, and it’s called Jayne Mansfield’s Car; it’s a wonderful story about these two families who are on an inevitable course of hurtling into one another, an English family and an American family, and it’s set in 1969 so it was nice to do another kind of period film.
You’ve got quite a busy slate then, because The Three Musketeers is coming out soon as well…
Ray: Three Musketeers is out in October. I’ll be in London for the premiere, and that was great fun.
It was one you enjoyed making?
Ray: Oh God yes! I got to be Porthos! Another slightly violent person, but it was a great laugh, and Paul Anderson [Resident Evil] is just a genius to work for, there were great actors all around me, and it was all shot using the Avatar system; so it was all in 3D; and the big difference there is that the camera sees around you, so all the sword movements had to be on point; they had to be bang on target; adding that extra necessity of discipline.
Was that difficult?
Ray: Yeh. Well, the training was, but it’s a requirement, and when you’re shooting in 3D and you’ve got all those swrods around you, you’ve got to be on point; but it’s all fight training and as long as you concerntrate and focus it’ll be alright; because sometimes you’ve got about 40 blades smashing through the air, so you just make sure you’re in you’re right spot, and hope that everybody else is in theirs.
“Kill The Irishman… go and see it!”
– Ray Stevenson
Going back to Kill the Irishman again, did you find it difficult to get the part of Danny Greene, being a British actor? Were they looking for American actors first?
Ray: It was so easy! I’ll tell you why, seriously, the director had me in mind; I didn’t audition for it, I wasn’t even aware it was going to be cast; I was his choice, so he made the call to me, then arranged to come and meet me, showed me the script, talked through the story, and then it was simply a case of saying “You’re kidding? Of course I want to do it!”
That’s got be handy for an actor?
Ray: Yeh, it’s lucky that that’s the way it is sometimes, when writers and directors will have people in mind; sometimes suitable, sometimes not available, but as an actor it’s great; it’s like the easiest job you can get, but then you’ve still got to step up and do it.
It happened that way with Thor as well, Ken Branagh called me up and offered me Thor, and on G.I. Joe the producer phoned my agent in California and offered me that, so it’s nice when that happens; it means you don’t have to think too much, and that’s always good for an actor, it’s best not to make them think!
Finally… if you could sum up why people should go and see Kill The Irishman, what would you say?
Ray: I’d say…. go and see it, because it’s an old-school mobster movie, with a man’s journey, that’s couched in violence.
I don’t know actually because it’s a great movie, but it’s probably best left up to you to decide… so you watch it, and I’m sure you’ll work it out!
Kill The Irishman, the true story of mobster Danny Greene; a violent criminal who caused nearly 40 bombs to explode in Cleveland during the 1970s, started a war with the mafia, and was so loved by the local community they dubbed him “The Robin Hood of Collinwood”; is due to be released on Blu-ray
Kill The Irishman is released on DVD
