Vinnie Jones Interview: ‘Galavant’s Singing Henchmen, Gareth

Vinnie Jones Interview on Galavant and Playing Gareth
Timothy Omundson and Vinnie Jones star in ‘Galavant’ (Photo © 2014 American Broadcasting Companies, Inc)

When you think about actors who should star in a musical, you most likely don’t immediately think of Vinnie Jones. Jones can do comedy as writer/director Guy Ritchie (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch) discovered and he’s built for action roles, but musicals aren’t necessarily in his wheelhouse. And at the 2015 TCA winter press event promoting the ABC show Galavant, Jones confessed that the only musical he can recall watching when he was growing up was Bedknobs and Broomsticks.

However, Jones is terrific in the wild musical comedy Galavant, playing a henchman named Gareth, protector of the King as well as the King’s occasional song and dance partner. Discussing the role with a few journalists at the TCAs, Jones provided insight into what we can expect from Gareth as the show finishes up its limited first season run.

Vinnie Jones Galavant Interview:

Were you into medieval tales before this?

Vinnie Jones: “One of my favorite movies, really, is Braveheart. I love that. It’s just epic. It puts chills down your spine. It wells you up. It’s emotional. I’m quite an emotional fellow, really, and I do find myself welling up quite a bit.”

Does that surprise people?

Vinnie Jones: “Well, with me, a lot of it is sort of ‘glory’ emotion when someone does really good. That gets me. That really gets me. It’s sort of my own journey, really.”

Do you get to sing more as the show goes on?

Vinnie Jones: “Yes, I have a whole song which is called ‘Manology’ where I tell him to man up. It’s very Ian Dury, but when they screened it apparently, people were looking at it and saying, ‘Why is the henchman Gareth singing? Is it too early for him to sing?’ But you’ll see me seeing in the last episode. It’s a great tune.”

So you had no reservations about doing this?

Vinnie Jones: “Me and Dan Fogelman were the first ones on. We were on IMDB so long, my picture and Dan’s, that my picture grew a beard. We were on there for months and months and months.”

Is the henchman really a bad guy, or is he just working a job for the King?

Vinnie Jones: “I think it’s all too easy for him. When I spoke to the director and Dan about it, I thought he was a henchman, he was this…and they’re going, ‘He just thinks the King’s an idiot, a prat.’ So what Gareth is is he sews it, he picks up the pieces, and the thing you’ll see is me and Tim [Omundson] when we were 10 years old. We’re going to go back and you’ll see how I become his minder when we were 10 years old.”

What does a 10 year old Vinnie Jones look like?

Vinnie Jones: “Exactly like me. He’s in the same outfit as me. It was ridiculous. We saw him on set and he was walking up, and it was unreal. Two 10 year olds: one dressed as Tim and one dressed as me. It was hilarious.”

So Gareth really has to protect the King from himself rather than from any outside forces.

Vinnie Jones: “Well done. You’ve summed it up. I’ve been doing it since I was 10 years old.”