We Still Kill the Old Way is a British Gangster film about the coming together of retired gang members who are on a quest to seek vengeance on a local group of youths. BRWC speaks to Ian Ogilvy, who plays the starring role of head gang member Ritchie.
Could you tell me a little bit more about what the film is about?
Well it’s about a group of retired East London gangsters. My character has retired in the south of Spain and my brother, played by Steven Berkoff, gets himself killed by a group of youths, a very nasty bunch of kids who are terrorising the local neighborhood. I get upset by this so I come back and reform the old gang. There’s four of us, and we go out getting our revenge on these nasty kids. Guess who wins?
So vengeance is used a lot in films, for instance the Kill Bill trilogy and Oldboy. What do you think it is that makes this emotion so interesting on screen?
Well first of all I suppose it is to do with the fact that that it’s a clear-cut, clean storyline. Someone does you wrong, you go out after them. It’s a simple storyline, very easy to follow and you understand the motives that are being involved. It is also historical, I mean half of the wars around the world have been fought over that sort of thing. Vengeance is a very strong emotion.
You play Ritchie in the film. Can you tell me a little bit more about this character and what drew you to him?
As I say Ritchie is retired, he’s been living in Spain for the last 25 years and has been behaving himself. He’s got money and I think the last thing he wants is to come back to England and sort these people out, but he does it because he feels strongly about it. He seems to have a sense of humour about himself, his gang and what he’s up to and I think he is just very firm and determined. I was initially worried when I talked to the director. I asked “do you think the audience is going to believe me as the head of a gang, that includes the likes of James Cosmo, Chris Ellison and Tony Denham?” All of them are bigger men and harder men. And the director, Sacha Bennett, said “no, no you don’t understand you’re the George Clooney of the group, like in Oceans Eleven. You’re the brains.” So I thought oh ok, I can do that.
You’ve been in quite varied roles, for instance Death Becomes Her, Waterloo, My Life in Ruins. How did this compare to your other roles?
It’s completely different, I used to play the guy that goes after these people. I was always the good guy. Now I’m playing a bad guy, or a bad guy with a sense of purpose who his every other word is a four letter one. Some people said to me that they’d never heard me say a four letter word on screen. So that was one of the biggest differences – that I’m effing and blinding all over the place. I’ve also got a slight south London accent in there and am looking sharp with a black suit, white shirt, hair slicked back and all that. That’s how you play an elderly gangster: slicked hair and black suit.
The British gangster film has been a theme that has been used in many different ways. What do you think makes We Still Kill The Old Way stand out?
I think that it is the young against the old, that’s the fun part of it really. I know there has been themes sort of like that before; Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels has a bit of that element. But I think that the old in this film are outnumbered yet we use our wits and we don’t go barging in. We think about things before we do them and I think that’s why we win really. They are younger but they’re also more wild and crazy. They think that they’re invincible and they soon find out that they’re not.
Do you think that there’s a bit of truth in that?
At my age, it would be nice to think so. Somebody asked me what research I did and I replied that this is a fantasy gang, how one would like elderly gangsters to behave in a way. They’re respectful to women, they don’t hurt anyone who isn’t deserving and so this is a bit imaginary. When you’re doing a fantasy you don’t really need to do much research; you just play the role how you think it should be.
What was it like working with the other actors such as Steven Berkoff (who plays Charlie Archer), James Cosmo (who plays Arthur) and Tony Denham (who plays Butch)?
It was really, really nice. I didn’t know them and I hadn’t worked with them before and they were all terrific. The only one that I had worked with was my very old friend, Nicky Henson, who plays a bent, retired policeman. He and I have been friends for many years so that was very nice to be working with him again. And the others were all great, we had a lot of fun and we just got on with it.
And how about Sacha Bennet as director?
He’s a really terrific director; he really knows what he’s doing. Once he feels confident in you and he thinks you can do it without his help, he leaves you entirely alone. He’s very welcoming with ideas and suggestions and the odd, fun weird line; we would all come up with them and Sacha would always be open to them. He wasn’t at all jealous or protective over his own material. He was the perfect director I think. He also knows how to work fast and furious with a limited budget. The equipment these days is so much more convenient to use than the old equipment I used to use. When I was a young actor cameras weighed half a tonne and now you can carry them with one hand. So you can really shoot much faster and Sacha was great at this.
Looking back at the filming, were there any particularly memorable moments?
Yes, I mean for a low budget film, they did pretty well. They had me up in a helicopter. I like flying so that was pretty good. We also spent three days in Spain in Marbella. Again, for a low budget film that is not something one usually does. And there was just a general feeling of ease and comfort and having fun on the set. It really was one of the most enjoyable films I have ever made.
What do you hope audiences will think or feel when watching this film?
What I really hope is that they will want more because there is talk of a sequel and even a sequel to the sequel. The talk is quite enthusiastic so what I really want is for the audience to say, “yes this is cool. We want to see more of it.” That would be the best thing they could take with it.
We Still Kill the Old Way will be released on DVD and Blu-ray from 26th December 2014.
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