‘Arrow’ Q&A: Vinnie Jones On Playing Brick & Getting ‘A Cuddle’ From The Cast

Vinnie Jones as Brick on ‘Arrow’s’ ‘Uprising’ episode (The CW)

As tough-as-nails criminal mastermind Brick, Vinnie Jones has made his plans clear on “Arrow” – he wants to rule The Glades.

But, Team Arrow isn’t about to let that happen and Black Canary, Arsenal, Diggle, Felicity Smoak and more will be battling to stop Brick from taking over their house in Wednesday’s “Uprising” episode of The CW drama.

The British actor, known for his lengthy career playing hard men across television and film, went from the leather and chain mail of his character Gareth in ABC’s “Galavant,” to smart suits as the unforgiving “Arrow” villain and he told Access Hollywood about his latest leap. But while he’s known for being a tough guy, former soccer (UK football) star Vinnie admitted it can be a little “daunting” – even for him – to join as a guest star on an established show. Luckily, the “Arrow” cast was more than welcoming, something he told us about in a new interview.

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AccessHollywood.com: How did this work with ‘Galavant’? Did you have to go back and forth?
Vinnie Jones: No. Literally the week I was coming back from ‘Galavant,’ from England – we film that in England and Wales – I actually got a call, and [they] said, ‘Would you like to do ‘Arrow’?’ … Obviously we looked at it all and seeing how much of a popular show it was, I literally came back, I think I had a day or so in LA, at home and then I flew up to Vancouver. So… I didn’t get much rest. We filmed long days on ‘Galavant.’ We had to get everything in, and so I was all ready for a rest and some nice golf days, and then I was straight up to Vancouver (laughs).

Access: Did you get to see many episodes [of ‘Arrow’] before filming? What did you think of it?
Vinnie: I’d just done the normal research — go on YouTube, watch some shows and that, and it was great. I’m sort of a comic book guy and obviously with ‘X-Men,’ and I did ‘The Cape’… Yeah, I do like the comic book stuff. I’m a real big fan of it, and you know, as I’ve said in the past, Superman was always my thing growing up and so I was thrilled to do it.

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Access: Did you get to talk to Brandon Routh, who has obviously played Superman, about his experiences?
Vinnie: Brandon came and played football for us at Hollywood All-Stars, so I know Brandon from way back. And a very good friend of mine, one of my best friends is Tom Welling.

Access: Another Superman…
Vinnie: Yeah, but he won’t say that. He says, ‘No, I’m Clark Kent.’ But his nickname is ‘Superbaby.’ So we called him ‘Superman’ playing golf. So yeah, I get a thrill out of the comic book stuff.

Access: I watched a little sneak peek they had online of this weeks ‘Arrow,’ and it reveals Brick [has a history with] Malcolm [Merlyn]. Are we going to get into some of the backstory… and maybe do some flashbacks?
Vinnie: Yeah, I think [on Wednesday] you’ll get some of that, yeah.

Access: Does that involve wearing wigs or old ’90s clothing or anything sort of fun like that?
Vinnie: Not really, no. I do try and stay away from that – all the fake beards and the wigs and everything. It’s just an absolute nightmare. We [did] a lot of night shoots up in Vancouver, and it’s cold and all the glue’s coming off and the girls are sticking you back together and all that, so as much as I can, I try and steer away from that. I do like the suits. But, I mean, with ‘Galavant,’ I was getting into the costume every day and then I come out of that and I’m putting Hugo Boss suits on, so it was fantastic.

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Access: That’s a nice change. It’s funny you just said it was cold in Vancouver because I would have thought – is it because you’ve been in LA so long that Vancouver is cold for you now?
Vinnie: There’s no mistake, from Vancouver to LA, it rains in Vancouver. It pissed down, and it pisses down and it pisses down. … I’m quite a veteran now, so I take — from 80 degrees in LA, going down to LAX, I have my jacket under my arm. I know as soon as I get off that plane I need my jacket. … But, I love it up there. I love going fly fishing up there. I was up there about five months on ‘X-Men,’ and I just really got into the fly fishing scene. I didn’t get much time for that with ‘Arrow’ because we filmed a lot of night shoots, so it was… getting to bed at like 6, 7 in the morning, have a bit of a sleep, in the gym, grab a coffee and the car was waiting for you.

Access: I know you get to work with John Barrowman in this. Did you guys know each other beforehand?
Vinnie: Obviously I’ve known of John and I’ve known some of the fine work he’s done, and especially some of the theater stuff he’s done, but [he is] a very charming man. We got on great and it was nice. I got in there and he came into the makeup trailer and was, ‘Awww, I’m so thrilled to see you. I’ve seen lots of your work. I’m a big fan,’ and all that. It’s very nice. It settles you in, you know, and they were a lovely bunch up there – the cast and the crew, a real nice bunch. When you go in as a guest star, whether it’s for one episode or three like this, it’s really nice that – and we did it on ‘Galavant,’ when we had guests like Ricky Gervais, John Stamos and that – when they come in, it’s important for the regular crew and the regular cast to embrace them and make them feel part of it. It warms them to it, and I think that comes out in the performances. It’s quite daunting going on to a set where you’ve got a hundred crew, you’ve got all the cast, they all know what they’re doing and then you sort of come in…stone cold, and straight away you enter a big dialogue scene and you don’t know whether you’re doing it sort of right and all that and then you get the thumbs up, and then, you know you do a good day’s work, and then the other actors come over and you know, they give you a cuddle and they’re like, ‘Oh, that was great,’ and it boosts your confidence. But even for myself, it is quite daunting walking on to a set and just being thrown straight into the mixer.

Access: Who gives Vinnie Jones ‘a cuddle’? You just said they give you ‘a cuddle.’ That was really cute.
Vinnie: Barrowman! John Barrowman for sure (laughs).

Access: I imagine he’s a huggy guy. So I’ve got to ask you about [Brick], and there was a thing in last week’s episode where Ray was talking about how much money he had and Brick really didn’t care about the money. Why he doesn’t care about money?
Vinnie: I’ve got all the crew with me now, and that’s not gonna be an issue. I’m gonna own the banks anyway. How’s that gonna be a problem to Brick? Once he’s taken over, he can walk in and just tell ’em how much he wants. That’s not a problem.

Access: It looks like there’s a massive showdown going on in the streets of The Glades in this episode. Was that a lot of choreography? Tell me about that.
Vinnie: Yeah, there was one big one that was about three nights for one scene. You’ll see it. It’s pretty epic.

Access: Did you have to do a lot of choreography with the stunt guys?
Vinnie: Yeah. Done a lot, but they’re so finely tuned. … They’re probably the most well-oiled bunch of stunt guys I’ve ever worked with. I mean, they were on it. For me now — early days I wanted to be the man and do [my] own stunts and all that, but you can never look as good as those guys. And you can never tell. I’ve been watching the last two episodes and not in a million years can you tell whether it’s me or a stunt man, you know? I know a lot of actors like to say, ‘Yeah, I’ve done all my stunts.’ That’s all bulls**t, I think. You’ve gotta let these guys work.

“Arrow” continues Wednesday at 8/7c on The CW.

— Jolie Lash