of to balance those two sides was Ray. He has the best kind of baggage, for me. You often trade off with actors -- say you're Ken Loach; you'll cast an unknown or maybe a comic who doesn't have the same kind of baggage and people are see them fresh. Maybe they don't have any history and that's a good thing for a certain kind of film, and bad for another. If you then cast them in action film that would feel weird. I think with this, Ray has a lot of baggage to him, and for me it was very useful. You're used to seeing him play hard men, men who are trouble, men of violence and action. When you see him vulnerable at the beginning, hopefully that is quite shocking -- more shocking than if you were seeing a complete unknown. He carries all the weight of those previous films, and yet you're seeing him ravaged by a disease and problems from his past. That immediately worked for me, and I couldn't think of any other British actor who could work in the same way, with the correct kind of baggage. "[Ray Winstone] carries all the weight of those previous films, and yet you're seeing him ravaged by a disease and problems from his past. That immediately worked for me..." JR: In that respect, how would you have felt about making it with another actor? Would you have waited for Ray Winstone to be available if he hadn't