Ray Winstone, recovering from mating stunts

There is something about playing one of the mightiest kickers of ass ever(!) that makes you want to throw caution to the wind and launch yourself at everything, armed with little more than some furry underpants and a berserker cry.  And so Ray Winstone took to his role as Beowulf with great relish, breaking various parts of anatomy in the process:

“I broke my ribs,” he says. “There was one bit where I rip the dragon’s heart out, and there was a big metal frame thing we were using. For some reason I thought I was still 17 and I came tearing in and went into the bar and then smash, all the ribs go…….

“You lived it. You didn’t just turn up to do the acting and then the stuntman puts a pair of trousers on and rolls about a bit you know. You actually did it and you lived it.”

He may be an extremely fit 50-year old but doing your own stunts at any age can be hazardous to the sanctity of your body parts.  Especially if they include all those risky moves required to fulfil  Grendel’s lizard mother’s request to “give me a son”.