Inside the gritty gangster hit from director Guy Ritchie
Whether MobLand first came to its cast members as a script or a concept, what immediately drew them in was the calibre of talent associated with the series. A Guy Ritchie project based on proposed prequel to Ray Donovan, written by Black Mass screenwriter Jez Butterworth, starring Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan and Tom Hardy — could it get any better? “It was a bit of a no brainer,” laughs Lara Pulver , who plays Mirren and Brosnan’s daughter-in-law, Bella Harrigan. “Jez is a master playwright of those kinds of family dynamics, the grey politics that we all have in our families in different forms, to different levels. It’s pretty heightened in this particular family.”
That feels like something of an understatement. The drama centres around ruthless power couple Maeve and Conrad Harrigan (Mirren and Brosnan), the heads of an Irish clan who dominate the drugs and guns underworld in London and beyond. Hardy plays their top fixer, Harry Da Souza, who is charged with cleaning up the messes — which tend to be caused by extended family. In the very first episode, it is Harrigan’s troublemaking grandson Eddie (Anson Boon, Pistol), who endangers the business by going on a bender that ends badly and threatens to cause a war between another mobbed-up family.
Eddie is not the only one making trouble for the Harrigans, even if his rebellion is more overt than the others’. Their son Kevin (Paddy Considine, House of the Dragon) is not the heir they hoped for, while Conrad’s daughter Seraphina, played by Mandeep Dhillon (After Life), is a thorn in Maeve’s side — not that Seraphina cares. “She’s the result of a one-night stand that Conrad had with a stripper at Stringfellows many years ago, so that’s a really fun character breakdown,” says Dhillon. “She’s hungry for power, she’s driven by money, she’s driven by power. She’s a hustler. She has that Harrigan DNA really running through her and she’s a badass as well. She’s going to come for what she wants and she doesn’t care who’s in her way. She’ll move them.”
Also on a collision course with the Harrigan matriarch is Bella, whose marriage to Kevin is on the rocks and relationship with her son, Eddie, is becoming increasingly strained as he pulls towards his scheming grandmother. “It’s really tricky,” says Pulver. “[Maeve]’s been so influential and had his ear for so long. It’s been like rag to a bull with him — you mix his type of personality with that and it’s a perfect storm for disaster. It’s heartbreaking to see your child derail at such a rate knowing that someone else does not have their best interest at heart.”
The drama takes some swift turns in the first season, making sure the cast always stayed on their toes. “On this job, I had no idea of the trajectory of the character,” says Pulver. “There are moments of panic in that, because, well, how am I plotting this character? How am I sowing seeds? I was like, ‘I have to surrender to what this is and just trust in the process.’ And there was something really freeing in that. I felt it allowed for more wit, humour — just general play.”
It helped, of course, to be helmed by the master of play, Guy Ritchie, who directed the first two episodes, and also serves as executive producer of the series. “Guy brings a really unique style that is apparent in all of his films, which is why people love them so much,” says Boon. “Down to the way he incorporates quintessential English banter, Guy is so detailed. When you step into the sets, the tiny little things like the pictures on the wall in the sets or how the walls are painted with Union Jack colours — he just really gets how to make it seem so stylish, that British crime genre. I found that infectious.” Adds Dhillon, “There’s such a great energy on set as well, isn’t there? Guy really set that up. It felt like you are on a playground and you never know what to expect, in the best way.”
Occupying that playground with Mirren and Brosnan is something the other cast members still pinch themselves over. “It’s delicious,” says Pulver. “It’s delicious witnessing them in moments that you are not directly a part of. It’s delicious being in their presence when the camera’s not rolling because they’re so fun. And when you’re playing with them, it is an actor’s dream. It really is. I mean, Pierce is a movie star. He just has such swagger and charm that I feel like I’ll say, ‘Yes, whatever you say Pierce.’ It was wonderful for our dynamic, because you find out later that Bella and Conrad have a real history and it’s lovely to subtly sow those seeds. Yeah, two-handers with either Pierce or Helen are not bad days at work, that’s for sure.”
MobLand, streaming Sunday, May 4 on Paramount+