‘The Gentlemen’ S2 Cast Interview: Style, Watches, and Working With Guy Ritchie
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Readtime: 6 min
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With Guy Ritchie’s Netflix series The Gentlemen, you can count on three things: it will be distinctly British, feature extraordinary cars, and show off a cast dressed impeccably. Season two of The Gentlemen is no different, with Theo James’ Eddie Horniman simultaneously ascending through the ranks of British parliament and Europe’s criminal underbelly. With great power comes great responsibility, and even greater watches.
The work of stylist and long-time Ritchie collaborator LouLou Bontemps ensures that each player in this chess game is dressed to elevate their status on the board, down to the tiniest details: A rare watch on a wrist, or the tint in a pair of glasses.
The Gentlemen season two is out now on Netflix and to mark the occasion, Man of Many sat down with Giancarlo Esposito (the smooth-talking billionaire Stanley Johnston), Ray Winstone (imprisoned-but-still-effective drug lord Bobby Glass) and Vinnie Jones (Halstead Manor’s loyal gamekeeper Geoff Seacombe) to discuss the new season, working with Ritchie, and the wardrobe items they tried to pocket.
‘The Gentlemen’ Season 2 Wardrobe: Watches, Glasses, Suits, Oh My!
Every seam for the cast is stitched with extreme attention to detail (and yes, that includes the plush towel drug kingpin Bobby Glass wears for most of his scenes in from the confines of Bobby’s luxurious prison spa). Bontemps has worked with Ritchie across a number of projects, including The Covenant, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, Fountain of Youth and, of course, both seasons of The Gentlemen.
Styling matters on any set, of course, but you’d be hard pressed to find a series where costuming is so subtle yet impactful. Every outfit reveals something about the characters in The Gentlemen. Take the watches, for example: Last season, over six million pounds (AUD$11.2 million) worth of watches were used, much to the delight of noted horology enthusiast Esposito. Every character is rocking some form of elegant timepiece and, if they’re not, that’s the audience’s clue that this person isn’t of money, and therefore might still have a moral compass (for example, Jones’ humble gamekeeper, Geoff)
But, in this season, Esposito’s attention was less on the watches (he was wearing a stunning, blue-faced IWC when we spoke). Instead, it was around sunglasses, in particular the rotation of Jacques Marie Mage frames worn by Esposito’s ultra-wealthy, calculating character, Stanley Johnstone.
“The [JMM] Schindlers did it for me because they were chiseled rather than completely round,” Esposito says of his character’s signature Jacques Marie Mage frames. “They allow a bit of a ‘thinking man’ feel. Depending on the scene, I’d adjust the lens tint: do I want absolute clarity, or do I want you guessing what Stanley’s after until the next episode?”
That level of detail in styling was felt across all three actors, and is yet another result of Bontemps understanding just how Ritchie works.
“She understands where Guy’s going with it, I think that’s the massive thing,” Vinnie says. “Those two are on the same level, and once you get on that level, it’s magical.”
Jones also says that Bontemps gets to understand the actors intrinsically as well, and aims to find pieces that make sense for the character, but also that the actors themselves would wear.
“A lot of times you’ll go to a wardrobe before the movie and think, ‘Well, none of that’s me’, you know?…It’s a bit different with Loulou. You go there, and a lot of the stuff on the rail will give you a smile for you and for your character.”
“Wardrobe, for me, is where it all happens,” Esposito continues. “I think she’s a genius, and I think she really exemplifies every attitude that needs to be shown via clothing. It’s an empowerment to get with her and to figure out, ‘Well, what is Stanley trying to say here? Is he relaxing? Is he in business mode? What’s happening with him?’ I love clothing and I get the advantage of really feeling like a collaborator with Loulou.”
Just don’t expect Esposito, or any of the cast, to walk off set with a brand new watch on their wrist.
“The watches come with a person who has to guard them, which means another human being who stands over and watches me try to take it off and put it in my pocket.”
‘The Gentlemen’ Cast on Working with Guy Ritchie
It’s been over four years since The Gentlemen dropped to much acclaim on Netflix. In today’s world of doomscrolling and digital dopamine, a wait that long between seasons could be a death wish. However, for acting stalwarts like Esposito, Winstone and Jones, it’s just enough time to let the events of season one ruminate.
“I get excited,” Esposito says, “especially when we get closer to the premiere date of season two, because I realise that so much of what we did is going to be enhanced by what Guy does in the editing room. I mean that musically and visually on screen. It changes the intent and deepens the story. It’s always more than what I ever thought it would be.”
For Jones, whose collaborations with Ritchie reach back to 1998’s Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (the feature-length film debut for both of them), he says collaborating with Ritchie is a lesson in just letting things be.
“It’s impossible to guess what’s on the page that’ll end up on screen,” Jones says. “I’ve worked with Guy many times, and I can show you a script of Lock, Stock that looks nothing like the film. He finds it as he goes along, so you’re better off just focusing on the scene you’re shooting that day.”
“I don’t even know what I did after,” Winstone laughs, “but you learn his ways. You’ll get a three-page dialogue scene for yourself. You might not want to learn it, because you know it’s going to change the next day. But if you don’t learn it, you haven’t got an idea what you’re doing.”
All three actors agree that there’s adrenaline in working with a director like that, but all of them say they played a supportive role to those on set who might not be as clued in yet.
“In the first week, I had to explain to some panicking actors, ‘That’s just how he works—it happens to all of us,’” Jones says.
Esposito agrees, noting that adaptability is essential: “You need to know your script generally so you can improvise. Guy is going to give you something different and better, but if you’re unable to grasp that, you can’t move forward.”
“Once you get to a place within when you’re working that you know what’s going to come next is going to be better,” Winstone says, “that gives you the confidence to actually go on and play the part properly.”
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