14 DAY TRIAL // They say Guy Ritchie is the kind of man who rarely – if ever – can be convinced to talk about himself. According to the latest Esquire issue, where an interview with the British director is featured, that must be because he assumes that, if he were to accept that, he would have to answer questions about his divorce and his more famous ex. This is precisely what makes the fact that he dropped the ball during the interview all the more interesting.
Guy still loves Madonna, and, clearly, no one could blame him for that, since they were married for many years and started a family together. So it’s no surprise that he admits to still loving his ex-wife. However, as per his own words, the Queen of Pop is also a bit “retarded,” although he does refuse to detail what he means by that. Either way, as it’s easy to imagine, his comment has led to a lot of bad press, as many see it as a cheap blow at his former wife, who reportedly helped him many a time with his career.
The intent to insult doesn’t seem to be there from the start, as Ritchie begins by praising Madonna’s energy and strong will, which makes her better than many other young artists in so many ways. “Madonna makes things happen. Put Madonna up against any twenty-three-year-old, she’ll outwork them, out-dance them, outperform them. The woman is broad.” the famed director says for Esquire. And then he puts his foot in it by saying, “I still love her. But she’s retarded, too.”
However, in his defense, those who read the entire Esquire piece will probably see that Ritchie means nothing bad by the words above, even if this is how it might look at first sight. In fact, it’s not even necessary to read the piece to do so, as a look at only one of his movies would suffice to be able to guess some of the traits of Guy’s personality: he’s a loud mouth who says whatever crosses his mind, self-obsessed, cocky and shameless. Deep down inside, though, he remains a warm person who only puts on a mask because he doesn’t want others to see his weakness, the Esquire editor seems to believe after meeting with the man.
“Understand this: Guy Ritchie talks too much. He rarely talks about himself, or his own movies, or his famous ex-wife. He doesn’t want to tell you what he already knows or what he just read. He’s not much interested in discussing what he’s already done. Mostly, he wants to tell you what he’s thinking. He maunders, protracts, divagates through his ideas. There’s a path, to be sure. Something like: architecture fighting rationalism pain beer relativism marmalade. Only with Ritchie, there’s far less punctuation than that. Guy Ritchie repeats himself. He curses, cross-references too rapidly, gives answers that don’t appear to be answers. Sometimes even he seems to sense the double-talk in it.” Esquire writes of the man sitting behind what will hopefully turn out to be a successful franchise, the upcoming “Sherlock Holmes” with Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law.