‘Snow White’: The surprising Disney movie Ray Winstone that terrified Ray Winstone

Posted On August 26, 2024August 26, 2024

Known for his gruff London accent and his penchant for playing hardmen roles, it would be easy to think that Ray Winstone is not the kind of man to be scared easily, but the truth is that even the toughest geezers can be shaken to their core if shown the right kind of movie. Surprisingly, one of Winstone’s big fears was showcased in a Disney movie of all works.

Looking back over Winstone’s career, we can see the kind of characters in which he has a natural capability, namely those on the borders of violence. His early efforts in Scum and Quadrophenia showed Winstone in the light of some of Britain’s most violent eras, while later turns portrayed criminal enterprise.

In Sexy Beast, Winstone played a retired British gangster who is pulled from his idyllic life in Spain to reluctantly take part in one last job, while films like The War Zone and Nil by Mouth had Winstone detail difficult subjects like sexual and domestic violence and even incest, showing that he could turn his attention to shocking human behaviour.

With such roles in mind, some of Winstone’s movie roles stand out in surprise, certainly his effort in 2012’s Snow White & the Huntsman, directed by Rupert Sanders. Winstone has turned to the fantasy genre a handful of times, but this performance had him tap into the German fairy tale ‘Snow White’.

Also starring Kristen Stewart, Charlize Theron and Chris Hemsworth, the film serves as a retelling of the tale in which Snow White is imprisoned by her evil sorceress stepmother, who hires Eric the Huntsman to recapture her once she escapes, but he eventually joins Snow White’s quest to overthrow her captor.

Of course, the version we best know of ‘Snow White’ came in the 1937 Disney film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which, rather amazingly, Winstone said he found terrifying. Speaking with Den of Geek, the British actor once said, “The Disney Snow White was frightening. It was frightening! The witch turning in the apple, and her eating it, and dying…so it was frightening, especially when it was made. So it was, really. And I think we lose sight of that a little bit.”

Winstone went on to explain how the original fairy tales that many Disney movies are based on initially served as warnings to children, say ‘The Pied Piper’: “Don’t follow the man with music down the road, because he’ll take you away from us” or ‘Hansel And Gretel’: “Don’t go in the woods, don’t go to that strange house.”

According to Winstone, ‘Snow White’ is a story of “vanity and jealousy”. He explained: “That hatred for people blackens your heart and your soul, which affects everyone. And in a way, that’s another lesson. And they are like that. They murder people, jealous people. Vanity is a terrible thing; it really is.”

If anyone knows anything about murder, jealousy, and vanity, then considering the kind of movies that Winstone has been in, he would certainly be the man. His performance in Nil by Mouth was a portrayal of a man driven by alcohol, jealousy and anger, and years later, Winstone, who played the ill-tempered dwarf Gort in Snow White and the Huntsman, tapped into one of the most “frightening” Disney movies of all time, a surprise by his standard.

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