Gary Kemp can make a blank expression feel like a deliberate decision to keep everyone else at a distance. We rate that restraint in The Krays, though it does not always sustain the threat.
Fi1m perspective
In The Krays (1990), Gary Kemp makes Ronald's blank expression seem deliberate, as though explaining himself would be an unnecessary concession. Playing opposite Martin Kemp as Reggie, he gives little away and makes no effort to turn the criminal into agreeable company. It is an effective performance, although it does not always produce the fear the film needs. Both actors hold our attention without continually reminding us how dangerous their characters are.
He returned to acting with that lead after childhood roles and his success with Spandau Ballet. Supporting roles followed in the 1990s, among them Sy Spector in The Bodyguard (1992) and Oliver in the heist film Killing Zoe (1993). From the 2000s, his work shifted towards the stage, alongside occasional film and television appearances. Jamie Lloyd directed him as Teddy in a revival of Harold Pinter's The Homecoming (2015).
Peter Medak's The Krays gives us a useful test: how much can Kemp communicate by doing so little? His stillness denies us the pleasure of watching a gangster enjoy his own importance, and Medak is right not to compensate by making the brothers more likeable. We were unsettled by the family scenes, where the Kemps and Billie Whitelaw make the domestic encounters more disturbing than the violence. The guardedness matters there because we have to stay with these men without being encouraged to admire them.
The limitation is that Kemp's blankness sometimes remains merely blank, particularly in a film whose psychology grows repetitive. Refusing to advertise danger is a sound choice, but an audience still needs to feel it, and that happens unevenly here. For a first encounter with his screen work, choose The Krays, allowing for a crime drama in which the family scenes are the strongest reason to stay.
Biography
Gary Kemp is an English actor and musician. Born on 16 October 1959 in Islington, London, he trained at Anna Scher's Children's Theatre drama club and appeared in the 1972 children's film Hide and Seek.
Kemp is best known as the guitarist and principal songwriter of the band Spandau Ballet, which he formed in 1978 with his brother Martin Kemp on bass. He later returned to acting, playing Ronald Kray opposite Martin as Reggie in the 1990 film The Krays. Subsequent screen roles include Sy Spector in The Bodyguard (1992) and Oliver in Killing Zoe (1993). He has also worked extensively in television and on the London stage, including productions of Art and The Homecoming.
