John Wick's Ian McShane reveals how Ana de Armas's Bond role led to Ballerina
"All you need is one scene in a movie."
Ever since the first film arrived back in 2014, Ian McShane has been a pivotal part of the John Wick franchise – so there's no surprise that he's reprising his role as Winston again in new spin-off Ballerina.
His scenes in the film are few-and-far between, especially when compared to his more meaty roles in the earlier entries, but speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com ahead of the release, he explained how that doesn't necessarily matter.
And to illustrate the point, he mentioned the impact star Ana de Armas – who leads the new film – had made in her brief but memorable role in 2021 Bond film No Time To Die.
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"Well [there's] less of him, whatever," he said. "With talking to Ana, she was talking about the, you know, she was in the Bond movie. She had the one scene. All you need is one scene in a movie. She played Paloma, which is... she kicked ass in that.
"And people say, like, 'Why didn't she come back?' And I said, 'No, all you need is the one...' Now, you got a whole movie to yourself playing Eve Maccarro!"
McShane also explained the importance of the new film placing a woman at the front and centre of the franchise for the first time, explaining how: "We needed a female dynamic in these movies."
"They've been so male orientated before," he added. "I mean, women come and see us, sure, but it's nice to have something that they can relate to on a personal level."
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Meanwhile, he also addressed the the well-publicised reports that several new scenes had been added to the movie after the original cut performed poorly during test screenings.
“These big movies, they always have test audiences looking at them, and they decided quite rightly, they needed a little backstory," he explained.
"So we went back and we filmed the scene with the little girl [version of de Armas's character], which gives all that information, which actually adds to our relationship.
"So by the time you see them, you know they already know each other. He knows her as a little girl, and she remembers him as being... you'd like to think kind and putting her in a safe situation."
From the World of John Wick: Ballerina is now showing in UK cinemas.
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Authors
Patrick Cremona is the Senior Film Writer at Radio Times, and looks after all the latest film releases both in cinemas and on streaming. He has been with the website since October 2019, and in that time has interviewed a host of big name stars and reviewed a diverse range of movies.
