Ultraviolence hits the box with Gareth Evans’ Gangs Of London.
Joe Cole steps up from Peaky Blinders sidekick to mob boss in a unique take on the British crime-family drama
FOR GANGSTER FANS, it’s a mouthwatering proposition. Former Peaky Blinders member Joe Cole (aka John Shelby, RIP) returning to the genre which made his name (following critical success in A Prayer Before Dawn, Pure and Black Mirror), and acclaimed Welsh director Gareth Evans (The Raid, The Raid 2) and his cinematographer Matt Flannery applying their trademark balletic bloody spin on martial-arts action and world building to a London setting. The execution of crime family boss Finn Wallace (Colm Meaney) forces eldest son Sean (Cole) to step up, Michael Corleone-style, and try to impose himself in the heightened, hyper-violent world that Evans sets up in the show’s opening 90minute episode. We spoke to Joe Cole to find out more.
Does London-born, privately schooled 21st-century gangster Sean Wallace feel a long way from John Shelby and the Birminghambased early 20th-century Peaky Blinders gang?
I think this character is so different and unique and such a step away from the younger brother who I played in Peaky Blinders. For me this felt just perfect.
Our introduction to Sean in the opening scene of Gangs Of London is a memorable one…
It’s a real statement piece. You’ve got someone hanging from the top of a skyscraper with the backdrop of London lit by all the nightlife. The camera is upside down initially as it passes through the city, and then it flips and you see this boy hanging. It kind of sets up the scale of the show. It also sets up my character really well. It’s like, how do you create empathy for your character with an audience when you’ve hung a teenage boy off the top of a building in the first scene? Can you still ride with these characters? It’ll be cool to see how people react.
Was one of the great draws of this project getting the chance to work with The Raid team of Gareth and Matt?
It’s a unique show. It’s driven by incredible filmmakers. Gareth Evans going into television is a big statement. I really feel like each episode is a mini movie in a way.
In episode one it’s Sope Dirisu as rising gang member Elliot Finch who gets to brandish meat cleavers, pub darts and ash trays. Were you relieved to find some classic Gareth Evans action for you to play later in the series?
[Laughs.] To be honest, I’m more drawn towards character and story. The crux of the piece is the familial drama and the emotional resonance of Sean’s childhood. I’ve done plenty of action before, so I wasn’t too bothered about letting Sope crack on. As the show goes on Sean very much joins the battlefield.
Had you encountered the way that Gareth and Matt plan their individual shots before? Some pieces of action last for as little as four seconds…
The only time that I really experienced Gareth’s planning of shots was in a camp site scene, which we shot in a muddy field in Sevenoaks. That is a meticulous, specific action sequence with a lot of people, a lot of bullets and a lot of bloodshed. We also shot a Soho shoot-out scene.
Here you’re the lead. Do you think there are things you’ve learned about how to carry a show from watching Cillian Murphy on Peaky Blinders?
Cillian is a professional both on and off camera. You can’t fault the guy. And he’s a friend. I think by osmosis you learn a lot. I remember getting on that set when
I was 23, and kind of feeling like I’d really been thrown in the deep end in those scenes where you’d got Cillian, Helen Mccrory and Paul Anderson absolutely bossing it. It was fun and it was exciting, but you always felt to a certain extent that you were playing catch-up. When I did this I didn’t feel like that. I felt like it was my time.