For much of The Gentlemen Season 1, Vinnie Jones’s Geoff Seacombe is a loaded gun. Jones’s portrayal made it clear there was much under the surface of the quiet man in the background of the Halstead estate. Geoff serves the aristocratic Horniman family as their gamekeeper, confidant, and seemingly bottomless well of loyalty. He’s also the secret father to Charly (Jasmine Blackborow). Season 2 finally pulls the trigger, unleashing the full power of Geoff — and the actor who plays him. The new chapter of the Guy Ritchie series draws the quiet confidant closer to the foreground, deepening his relationship with Lady Sabrina (Joely Richardson) and introducing his grandson, Tarquin. Geoff finally shows just how dangerous he can be in Episode 7 (destined to be a Gentlemen classic) when his family is threatened.
“I think that Vinnie Jones is a weapon,” lead writer and executive producer Matthew Read tells Tudum, explaining that the writers deliberately resisted “pulling the sword out of the sheath” too soon. Jones has yet another metaphor for Geoff: He’s a “very, very, very fine red wine,” a character whose subtle flavors come to the surface over time.
Below, Jones talks to Tudum about Geoff’s expanded role, his long and life-changing collaboration with Ritchie, and how playing the multilayered character in Season 2 has transformed the actor himself.
Matthew Read told us the writers saw you as a “weapon” they didn’t want to unleash too early. Were you happy that Geoff was held back in Season 1?
Vinnie Jones: I was pleased that Geoff was held back. I know how Guy [Ritchie] works. I remember on Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, I was asking Guy, “I’m supposed to be this enforcer, and everyone’s scared of Big Chris, but I haven’t done anything.” And Guy said, “No, but when you do, hell hath no fury.”
Knowing Guy so well, it’s like when you open a fizzy bottle and you shake it up: You just release it very slowly. Or when the radiator in your car is overheating, you don’t just undo it quickly. I understand Guy more than most, doing so much work with him.
More on that soon. Season 2 also gives Geoff a much bigger emotional life. What remains at the center of the character for you?
Jones: I still think what he carries around his neck is the loyalty to the family. He says it in Season 1: “My loyalty to this family is unlimited.” Season 2 is going to give you a bit more than that, and Season 3 a bit more. You just see, “How much would a man do for loyalty?”
Geoff is a very, very, very fine red wine. He’s like a very mature bottle of red wine, and you just take your time. You smell it, you sniff it, you taste it, you put it on your taste buds. That’s what Geoff’s all about.
How were you cast as Geoff?
Jones: Guy rang me one day when I was out and about and said, “I’ve got something for you.” It was the part of Geoff. It’s very dear to my heart, the life of Geoff. I would say it’s changed me as a person a little bit, playing Geoff. I’ve had this mad soccer career, I’ve had this mad whirlwind of an acting career, and now I’ve turned into a bit of a mature red wine myself, to be honest.
Was there anyone from your own life who helped inspire your performance?
Jones: When you’re acting and you’re looking for somebody, you take little bits or big bits out of people you know. A lot of acting is either study or experience, meeting people.
There was an old guy I knew many, many years ago growing up. Old Rolfie, his name was. I thought this guy was God. He could shoot a rabbit running with a catapult. He had a big old dog. We thought he lived in the woods with the gremlins and the leprechauns and the goat people and all that, but he didn’t. He lived in a little cottage with his wife. They didn’t socialize. The only time they went out was to go into the woods.
If you wanted a catapult made, he would be the guy to make it for you. And I’ve based Geoff around him a little bit — mysterious. No one knew where he came from. No one knew where he went. He had animals living in the house, jackdaw crows and ferrets and dogs. He had a barn owl.
So it was very close to my heart, really. As an actor, you either study it if you don’t know anything about it, or you try and pull from life experiences.
What does Geoff’s relationship with Sabrina reveal about him?
Jones: He knows his place. And as I say, it’s the level of loyalty. That’s the thing with Geoff. They’ve fallen in love. His love for her is unconditional, and therefore it is for the boys and for the family. I think Geoff is admirable about it. He’s classy. He will always shy away from it unless he’s asked. He’s a confidant. I think Geoff likes being a confidant.
And when [the family] ask him to be godfather, I think that makes it for Geoff. That seals the deal for Geoff. He’s been accepted.
Geoff is a knight in shining armor. He’s the knight in shining armor for the family, and that is getting more evident.
Episode 7 really brings together Geoff’s gentleness and his violence. What were you trying to capture in those scenes?
Jones: “Gentleness” is a great word with Geoff. He carries the gentleness very well. Look, we’ve seen what he can do. He’s an absolute killer. This I know. But the gentleness of him — he put his life on the line for that baby [Tarquin] in Episode 7. They could have cut him into 50 pieces. He would’ve still won that war for that baby — that’s his blood.
I’ll tell you what I had in my mind when we were filming it: Rambo. The first Rambo. You are rooting for the underdog. There’s no fancy stuff and kung fu fighting and all the rest of it. It’s rawness — raw love. It’s all for that baby and that family.
We had the army boys there, and they went through it with us, and that was very important. For Geoff, everything he does is absolutely perfect, absolutely mint every time. He knows his craft. You come out of that episode going, “Where did Geoff come from? What is Geoff’s story?” When you do that with a character, it makes him very, very interesting.
Geoff can also be very funny without ever cracking a joke. How do you approach the show’s humor without breaking his stoicism?
Jones: I think it shows Geoff’s intelligence. A little look and stuff is all you need a lot of the time. You don’t need to be belly laughing.
I remember with Lock, Stock, you could keep watching it and finding things in there and go, “I never saw that,” because it’s not out-and-out. They’re not one-liners with a punch line. They just get thrown in there, and you go, “Hey, what did he say?” He’s not the court jester.
You and Guy Ritchie have been working together your whole career. What does he bring out of you now that other filmmakers haven’t?
Jones: First of all, I have a million percent confidence in him because he found me. He put me on the screen in the first place — no one else.
My career now is probably 30 years along, and nearly every movie I do, the director wants to be Guy Ritchie. It’s wonderful for me being so close to him. We don’t have to be in the pub together every night. It’s in the universe sometimes. A relationship can be in the universe. You don’t have to be going on holiday or shooting or fishing every day. A friendship like ours doesn’t come along very often.
We have a bond with Lock, Stock, whether we like it or not. Everybody in that first movie — we’re all bonded. We’ve all gone our own ways. I’m quite happy sitting in the Guy Ritchie camp and not really worried if I don’t work for anyone else again.
I honestly don’t believe many other directors or writers understand me. They think I’m one-dimensional and can only shoot people up and kill them and all the rest of it, whereas I think I’m proving to everybody — and Guy is as well — what I’ve actually got.
I’ve been out there in the big, wide world. I’ve done some really good stuff and some really crap stuff. Now let’s just have 10 or 20 years of class acting. That’s where I am right now. That’s what Geoff’s all about. It’s the new career for Vinnie Jones, really, if you like. He’s been born again.
Watch Jones in action in The Gentlemen Season 2, streaming now only Netflix.
