“He had a fatal flaw in that he was an international heroin dealer…” Vincent Regan On ‘Tango One’

British action fest Tango One is coming to the home formats and leading the mayhem is Vincent Regan. A versatile character actor, he’s appeared in films as diverse as 300 and City Of Tiny Lights alongside Riz Ahmed. He’s also been a familiar face on TV screens for years in fare like The Royals and The Musketeers.

Tango One sees him playing embattled drug dealer Den Donovan, who finds himself in a shed-load of trouble as the police close in and his family are threatened. Adapted from the novel by Stephen Leather it’s a great showcase for Regan, who chatted to us about what it’s like playing a hard man with a difference…

THN: What drew you to the project?

Vincent Regan: The fact that it was a good script. With so many British gangster films the plots don’t really add up and if they want to solve a problem they throw a bit more violence at it. Whereas this had intricate plotting and MacGuffins… there were nods to Internal Affairs and a little bit of Taken in there. There was a lot going on with it. And the central character was really interesting. He had a fatal flaw in that he was an international heroin dealer but he was more of a product of circumstance I’d imagine, a career criminal. What I found interesting was the fact that as the film progressed he had that Road to Damascus and became a changed man. It’s very rare in the format of… I won’t call it a gangster film cos I don’t think it is, it’s more of a British thriller… it’s nice to be able to play characters who go through change like this. It remains quite faithful to the novel.

Sacha Bennett is well known for directing the We Still Kill The Old Way series. What’s it like working with him? Did you spend a lot of time working on the ‘hard man’ character?

I’d worked with Sacha before, I’d done Bonded By Blood way back when and he was so easy to work with. He’s prepared to accept you bringing things to the table. If you had problems with the scene he’d be more than happy to work through it and make changes. Sometimes you work with a director and they can do a lot of planning, they’re very set in their ways. So when it comes to the actual filming and there’s a problem it’s quite hard to fix it because the planning’s become a comfort zone for them. Especially with low budget films where you’re dealing with limitations of time and budget. It’s pleasant when you’ve got that breathing space to fix things when they’re broken. Sacha’s such a nice guy.

How was it filming the action sequences?

Action scenes get harder to film the older you get. I didn’t do my own stunts in this one. I get in trouble with my wife and son. I did a TV series last year, a historical piece and foolishly allowed myself to get hit by a horse.

Hit by a horse?

Hit by a horse. I thought it would be cool. And it looked cool but it hurt like hell.

So you don’t like having a stunt double?

Many of the jobs I’ve done I’ve had a stunt double! It’s amazing, I was watching Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible throwing himself off buildings. If I did that I think I’d have a heart attack!

What was it like working with Sophie Colquhoun and Joseph Millson?

Lovely. Sophie did a TV show with me called The Royals so I’d worked with her before. She’s great playing a policewoman, handling guns… very un-Sophie! She handled it all with aplomb. And I worked with Joseph Millson who plays my nemesis on Shakespeare: Retold for the BBC. It was great to get an actor who’s worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company to come on board our film. We all went a jolly to Spain to shoot the Caribbean stuff which is unusual for a low budget film. We went to Spain and it was freezing! It was the middle of March in a little town south of Valencia and it was so cold. It was a real effort to sell it as the Caribbean on my part. That was fun.

I’ve watched you in a lot of things over the years. I remember you in the miniseries Eureka Street…

That’s going back! That’s… what is it, twenty years next year? We were the first BBC drama since the Good Friday Agreement to film in Belfast.

If you could go back and give yourself any advice, what would you say?

Work harder! There are times when you lose faith in a project you’re doing… don’t do it because if you lose faith it will falter and fail. Its an industry based on insecurities you know.

One of your best known movies is 300. Did you know at the time how stylized that was going to be when you were shooting it?

Zack Snyder actually shot a trailer for it to convince Warner Bros to back the project. It looked very much like the finished product, it looked extraordinary. There was the slowed down and speeded up action that became his leitmotif. I remember watching it and thinking ‘This is going to be the most iconic film I’ll ever be involved in.’ And it is, it’s the film that everyone wants to talk about.

What have you got coming down the line?

I did a French movie with Toby Jones and François Cluzet (Normandie nue) last year and I’m doing another one in France… it’s like my little sideline, doing French films now. My French isn’t great but they keep employing me!

Tango One is out now on digital platforms and on DVD from 19^th March.