The legendary Vinnie Jones delivers a career-best performance in his new movie from Vertical Entertainment, The Big Ugly (which will be released on VOD/Digital on July 31st), and when we recently caught up with him to discuss that project, we also asked about 2006's X-Men: The Last Stand.
Jones played the villainous Juggernaut in the Marvel Comics adaptation, and while he was easily one of the most entertaining parts of an otherwise disappointing movie, his role was a limited one. Asked to reflect on the experience, Jones talked in detail about being let down by director Brett Ratner. Promises were made, and the version of Juggernaut he signed up for wasn't the one he got to play.
"No," the iconic ex-footballer responded when asked whether he enjoyed his time working on the X-Men movie. "I loved the role, but hopefully you can put it f***ing right here, mate. I basically got mugged off. Matthew Vaughn signed me up, and it was a great role and a great script, and Juggernaut was a great character. I signed up for three of them, and that will show you how serious I was about it. Brett Ratner basically dissolved the character. I was in my f***ing trailer half the time. It's one of the most disappointing jobs I've been on as far as, you know, 'What am I doing here?'"
"It wasn't the same Juggernaut as I signed on for. They took his storyline away, they'd taken his character away, his dialogue. I had two big meetings with Brett about it, and he said, 'Yeah, yeah, it's coming. They're writing stuff for you as we speak' and it never f***ing happened," Jones continued. "Disappointment wise, that was probably one of the biggest. What's upsetting is some of the fans blame me! It was f***ing nothing to do with me! That role, I didn't sign up for. The Juggernaut you saw was not the Juggernaut I signed on for with Matthew Vaughn, I'll tell you that now. It upset me."
"I know what it means to the fans, and I felt like I was a bit of a scapegoat as no one ever told my side of it. Nobody ever stood up and said, 'Hold on a minute, we completely whitewashed Vinnie's character. Basically, I was an extra, mate. That's how I felt. I was gutted, to be honest."
We then asked about the difference between working with Matthew Vaughn (who later directed X-Men: First Class) and Brett Ratner, and he responded: "It was a different script, and then Brett, for some reason, brought all these other characters on board that had one line each in the f***ing movie and it was a joke, really. It was so disappointing, you know?"
A different version of Juggernaut was used in Deadpool 2 (created with VFX and voiced by Ryan Reynolds), but with Marvel Studios rebooting the X-Men franchise, Jones had this to say about potentially taking another crack at the villain. "Yeah, I'd love a chance at putting it right. I really would. That is a stone that I need to turn over if I ever got that chance."
It feels like The Big Ugly and I Am Vengeance: Retaliation star has been looking forward to finally telling his side of the story, and none of this is hard to believe given what we know about X-Men: The Last Stand. It would definitely be good to see him get another shot at the Juggernaut (especially after his stellar work in Arrow), but there are other characters he would be a great fit for as well.
Check back here later this week for the full interview, and watch The Big Ugly trailer below: