Lock, stock... and 30 smoking barbies!
GUY RITCHIE is known for making brutal, gritty, testosterone-fuelled films such as Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels. But the director has a secret passion that might dent his macho image, by confessing: ‘I’m very much into my interiors and my textiles… I’m a bit of an old lady like that.’
However, Ritchie is also quick to reinforce his alpha-male credentials, describing himself as ‘a caveman’ who likes ‘cooking raw steak on a barbecue’. In fact, he owns more than 30 barbecues, including one in his car and five in his London house, plus two clay ovens. ‘I adore them,’ he says in an exclusive interview with The Mail on Sunday’s Event magazine. ‘There’s just something about them.’
Ritchie, 48, also speaks of how his youth was defined by violence – he has scars from 50 stitches to prove it – and drugs. But now he says: ‘By the age of 19 I was finished with drugs. They were things I began to find repugnant for the soul and the psyche… but my intolerance of filth now is so unambiguous, and for that I’m grateful.’
He took the same attitude when Rocco, his son by pop star Madonna, was arrested for taking drugs. He says: ‘It’s simple: I don’t condone anything that’s illegal or dangerous. I’m not ambiguous about that.’
Ritchie, who was speaking to promote his forthcoming film, King Arthur: Legend Of The Sword, reveals he has nothing but praise for his ex-wife, even though the pair fought a bitter custody battle over Rocco. He says: ‘She’s a wonderful mother and has been very good to the kids, and her new kids, the twins, will have a wonderful education and receive lots of love. No one could say anything negative about that.’
But he also concedes that the couple’s high-profile divorce in 2008 hit him hard, although he has now found happiness with second wife Jacqui, an ex-model.
He gushes: ‘We are on the same frequency and the harmony is complete. I find her tremendously kind.’