Vinnie Bids Farewell

Empire magazine caught up with Vinnie Jones on the set of his latest film Mean Machine this month to chew the fat about football, film and farewells. The film, which is a football-based remake of the Burt Reynolds classic, is something of a swansong for the former QPR player as he explained; 'This is my farewell to football,' the hard man told us. 'Them days are gone. I love this world now.' The world he's referring to is the heady world of filmmaking, and it seems that this latest project is going pretty well for Vinnie. 'I just listen to the people who know, and they're all saying how fantastic it is,' he explained. 'We did one speech where I gave an emotional speech and the make-up girls were bawling their eyes out.' To read the full report, you'll have to buy a copy of the October issue of Empire magazine, which hits newsstands on 1 September 2001.