Ray Winstone has done it the hard way. A teenage boxing champion, he was expelled from drama school, twice declared bankrupt while still in his twenties and then made an instantly forgettable screen debut in a nonspeaking part in The Sweeney. Nobody thought this rough diamond was set for the big time.

But against the odds, Winstone, 50, is now a heavyweight Hollywood contender. He’s set to earn a small fortune starring alongside Harrison Ford in the new Indiana Jones film, which will be released next year, and has been tipped to play Jack Regan in a new film version of the show he started on, The Sweeney. Not bad for a youth who once turned up to his school ballet class in a leotard and bovver boots.

Recently he’s been in the news extolling the virtues of Angelina Jolie – “a smashing girl” – his glamorous co-star in Beowulf, the “digitally enhanced live action adventure” that opened in UK cinemas on Friday.

As you might expect from a man who prides himself on the energy he puts into his roles, Winstone enjoys getting behind the wheel. As a teenager he tore up the tarmac in a bashed-up Ford Anglia van – “I used to put my foot on the accelerator as we went round corners so we’d end up on two wheels.” But the car that now stands on the driveway of the Essex home he shares with Elaine, his wife of 28 years, is one he’d dreamt of owning since the days of nonspeaking bit parts.

“After the Ford, my grandfather bought me an old Fiat, as a treat,” he says. “It was one of those with the gearstick on the steering column. Anyway, the brakes failed while I was crossing Kew bridge in west London and I ended up ploughing into the back of a huge Jag.

“The front of my Fiat was a write-off, but all the Jaguar had was a crack on the numberplate. But this geezer still got out of his car, ranting and raving. I looked at him and said, ‘Have a good look at mine – then take another look at yours and you might feel a bit better.’ That’s when I started off wanting a Jag of my own.”

Today Winstone is the proud owner of a Jaguar XKR, but it took a long time to get there. The roles came steadily during the 1980s, but they were peppered around episodes of TV series such as Minder, Bergerac, Casualty and Birds of a Feather. He turned increasingly to the theatre to provide more challenging parts and it was his appearance in Mr Thomas, a play written by Kathy Burke, the actress and a friend of Winstone, that led to him being cast in Nil by Mouth, Gary Oldman’s semi autobiographical film.

His role as a cocaine-fuelled wife-beater landed him a Bafta nomination and the tough guy roles came rolling in. Now he finds himself acting in the most high-profile and physical role of his career as the warrior Beowulf in the film, which mixes live action and computer-generated animation. “I started out by telling the stunt guys that I would do what they thought I could do,” he says, shaking his head. “Now I realise, that’s the worst thing you can say. I ended up doing the lot.

“Come each night, I was in pain. There’s not a lot you can do other than have a hot bath with Radox, and then the next morning, off you go again. There is going to come a time when I can’t do these things. I thought that time had passed me by, so it was good to get into it.” And, thanks in part to the computer-generated additions, he emerges on screen with the physique of a Greek god.

He plays football on his regular visits to Los Angeles, alongside Vinnie Jones and Steve Jones, the Sex Pistols guitarist, for the Hollywood United team, which recently played David Beckham’s LA Galaxy squad. “It was one o’clock, boiling hot and I almost had a heart attack,” he says. “I was doing all the moves, then I would get the ball and my legs would turn to rubber. I couldn’t even kick it. I was playing centre forward and missed four open goals. But I stayed on for 80 minutes. Once I give up football at this age, I know I will never play again. My consolation is that Stanley Matthews was still playing for Stoke City at my age.”

The training, at least, was hardly gruelling. “Vinnie Jones invited me down the other week and I watched him train,” he says. “My eyes got a lot of exercise, watching him. But I had pulled my hamstring when filming Indiana Jones and had to be careful.”

He is sworn to secrecy over the new Indiana plot, which sees Ford, at 65, reprising his role in what is now the fourth film in the series and comes 18 years after the last. “Steven Spielberg is directing and as soon as you see the first shot you know you’re in a Spielberg movie,” he says, approvingly.

“And Harrison Ford is a real bloke. He likes a night out, but he had to keep himself in check because there was so much work for him to do. He’s as fit as a butcher’s dog, though.”

Winstone, who was born in Hackney, and is the son of a greengrocer turned cabbie, has no time for effete luvvies. Known to his family as Little Sugs (his dad was called Sugar, after Sugar Ray Robinson, the boxer), his acting heroes are the old-school stars of gritty British dramas. “I liked Albert Finney and Tom Courtenay and Richard Harris,” he says. “All those British actors really opened the door for people like me.

Before them, it was either posh people or actors playing cheeky chappies, talking in false cockney accents.”

But his ultimate hero? “Bobby Moore – no question,” says the lifelong West Ham fan. “Where I come from, everyone is famous for being a gangster or something.

He had morals, was a true gent and a great man.”

My stuff...

On my CD player
Amy Winehouse, Puccini and Verdi, Harry Connick Jr, Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, the Sex Pistols, the Clash, Al Green and Marvin Gaye

On my DVD player
A Man for All Seasons, Lawrence of Arabia, Zulu, The Vikings, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, and Look Back in Anger

In my parking space
A Jaguar XKR

I will never throw away
My West Ham United pennant from 1966. My dad bought it when we went to see England play Uruguay at Wembley, the first of the games we saw as England went on to win the World Cup. I was nine

Explore Features

• Porsche

• BMW

• Mercedes

• Ferrari

• Bentley

• Audi

• Maserati

• Aston Martin

• Jaguar

• VW