Trivia / Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels

• Actor-Shared Background: Jason Statham used to be a street vendor.
• Amateur Cast: Of the 44 speaking parts in the film, 17 were played by people who had never acted before.
• Breakthrough Hit: For Guy Ritchie and Matthew Vaughn.
• Cast the Expert: Jason Statham was an aspiring Olympic diver and made money as a street hustler. Guy Ritchie needed a street-wise seller, so Statham's audition was to improvise a scene in which he tactfully refuses to give a refund for a watch that he'd sold Ritchie.
• Cast the Runner-Up:
  • Stephen Marcus (Nick the Greek) was originally cast as Tom, hence why the character is constantly referred to as fat.
  • Dexter Fletcher originally wanted to play Tom.
  • Nicholas Rowe (J) was originally asked to read for Winston.
• Completely Different Title:
  • In Russia, the film was translated as Karty, den'gi, dva stvola (Cards, Money, Two [Gun]barrels).
  • In French, the title is "Arnaque, Crimes et Botanique" ("Cons, Crimes and Botany").
• Creator Couple: The reason Sting appears in the film is because his wife Trudie Styler was instrumental in getting the film made.
• The Danza: Alan Ford plays a character named Alan.
• Darkhorse Casting: The most famous faces in the cast at the time weren't known for acting - rock star Sting and footballer Vinnie Jones.
• Deleted Role: Model Laura Bailey was originally cast as Eddie's girlfriend. She completed filming but was later edited out after negative test screenings.
• Focus Group Ending: The film's original ending had the four lads walking off with the money, with Big Chris and his son about to follow them to retrieve it. This was changed due to negative test screenings. According to Nick Moran, Guy Ritchie scribbled a new ending on the back of a cigarette packet.
• Follow the Leader: Just about every British gangster film in the late nineties and early 2000s tried to emulate this film.
• Friendship on the Set: The four main actors became friends and are still in touch.
• Hypothetical Casting: Vinnie Jones claimed that he was the first actor to be cast, as Big Chris was described in the script as "looking like the English footballer Vinnie Jones".
• In Memoriam: The movie was dedicated to Lenny McLean, who played Barry the Baptist. He died of cancer exactly one month before the movie's debut in England.
• Orphaned Reference: Stephen Marcus (Nick the Greek) was originally cast as Tom, hence why the character is constantly referred to as fat. The finished film keeps the references but makes them a joke the underworld plays on him. The narrator adds that, for a skinny man, Tom's terribly fat.
• Real Life Writes the Hairstyle: The ending had to be reshot, by which time Jason Flemyng had grown his hair long. Thus, he wears a hat in the final scene.
• Recycled: The Series: The film had a surprisingly good but short-lived spin-off series of hour-long episodes.
• Serendipity Writes the Plot: Rory Breaker's television was originally supposed to be showing a football match. According to Stephen Marcus, the row of televisions in Rory Breaker's office took three hours to arrive and two hours to set up. Then, to Guy Ritchie's annoyance, they played American football rather than the English kind due to an issue with Sky Sports, so he settled on a motor race.
• Sleeper Hit: A low budget film from a first-time director and cast consisting mostly of unknowns (of the 44 speaking parts in the film, 17 were played by people who had never acted before). In fact, according to Matthew Vaughn, it almost went Direct to Video in America, until producer Trudie Styler called her friend Tom Cruise, who attended a screening, loved it and convinced the studio to give it a proper release.
• Star-Making Role: Jason Statham, Jason Flemyng and Vinnie Jones.
• Stunt Casting:
  • Sting as the bartender father of Eddie.
  • Vinnie Jones (an ex-footballer with a reputation as a hard nut) as Big Chris. At the time it was stunt casting, but it led him to a Hollywood career playing very similar characters.
  • Lenny McLean as Hatchet Harry's enforcer Barry the Baptist. McLean was better known for his former career as a fearsome bare-knuckle fighter known as the Guv'nor.
• Throw It In!:
  • Nick dropping his glass through Rory's table wasn't planned.
  • Ed forgetting the guns wasn't scripted. Someone actually forgot to bring the gun props to the set.
  • According to Vas Blackwood, Rory's "shistos, pesevengi, gamouri" line wasn't in the script. He drew on having Greek friends. There were two versions written and both were filmed.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Ray Winstone turned down the role of Hatchet Harry.
  • Behold the original script.

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