Vinnie Jones spent his youth training buzzards instead of dabbling with drugs.
Vinnie Jones has never dabbled with drugs
The 59-year-old footballer-turned-actor has admitted he's never tried any illegal substances - declaring there was "no cocaine" when he was a kid - so Vinnie's younger years growing up in Hertfordshire, England was focused on the local wildlife.
He told the Guardian newspaper: "When I tell people I’ve never taken a drug in my life, they’re like, ‘What?' But, as youngsters, it wasn’t our way. There was no ... cocaine and stuff like that.
"Our way of getting high was finding a bird’s nest or getting a ferret that didn’t bite your hand off. Our hard drug was training a buzzard."
Vinnie went on to insist he is hoping to shed his "meathead" persona onscreen and start filming nature shows so he can indulge his love of British wildlife.
He added: "[People] just think of me as a hardman who’s going to fight bears in Russia, you know? They can’t think beyond the stereotype. I really want to make a nature programme like Jack Hargreaves. I’ve even built a log cabin in my garden we could use for filming."
Vinnie previously admitted he felt like he was on a "downhill train" at the height of his Hollywood success.
He starred in a number of well-known movies - including 'Snatch', 'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels' and 'Gone in 60 Seconds' - following his retirement from soccer, but he is now keen to reinvent himself once again.
He previously told the Guardian: "If you look at my career, it flew off the rails. Went up, went to Hollywood, everything else: bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. The wheels were going, it was a downhill train and everybody was on it – the train was full! There weren’t a spare seat! – and we loved it and enjoyed it and it was a fantastic part of my life. Never take it back.
"But then the train starts going uphill, and slowing up. And you’ve got to reinvent yourself; you know, you’ve got to get the train to the top of the hill, so you can go again."
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