Books & Music -- 2 days ago
Guy Ritchie’s gangster thriller Mobland is, in short, one of the standout TV shows of the past year. Ritchie has his wicked way with making something that is gripping, clever and just damn well entertaining to watch (see The Gentleman, Lock, Stock…). Mobland has a myriad cast of glittering British names - Tom Hardy, Pierce Brosnan, Helen Mirren, Joanne Froggatt, Jasmine Jobson and Paddy Considine - and a twisting and turning plot that follows the Harrigan family. It does everything you’d want a TV show to do and more, and now we’re begging for a second season - the finale actually has more loose ends that need tying up than we’d expected, so you can surely expect to see Brosnan back at it soon.
25-year-old Anson Boon’s character Eddie Harrigan is the catalyst behind the majority of the storyline of season one (spoiler alert!) after his role in the death of rival gang member Tommy Stevenson. He’s the toe rag of the Harrigan empire, who drives Hardy’s calm protagonist Harry up the wall, and even tries to strangle his own mother in the final episode of the season. He’s the cocky reason the Harrigans and the Stevensons embark on a 10 episode barnstorm of a fight against one another, which sees Eddie’s family come out on top (with plenty of debt to pay).
We caught up with Cambridge-born Boon to see what he actually thinks about his character, as well as what working with titans of the game Brosnan, Hardy and Mirren was like…
Gentleman's Journal: Firstly, Anson, do you like Eddie?
Anson Boon: Yes absolutely! Believe it or not, I think I've played worse characters than Eddie in terms of morality. I’ve never disliked one of my characters - it would be very difficult to go to work every day for a six-month shoot like Mobland if I did because you have to find some sort of common ground or sympathise with your character in some way. Eddie is a product of his environment. People talk a lot about nature versus nurture. If you open the kitchen drawer in most households you see cutlery, whereas if you open the kitchen drawer in Eddie's house, you see a load of guns. The conversation around the dinner table in most houses is the weather. In their house it would have been about who's making the most on heroin, where can they get six million quid in cash in the next week, that kind of thing. So he is a product of his environment and being the only grandson, having his grandma in his ear as much as she is, as you've seen, he's got a lot of pressure on him. It's like the age-old story of the young prince that just wants to succeed and please everyone.
Eddie has a complex relationship with Tom Hardy’s character - what was filming that like?
Tom [Hardy] is someone who delves so deep into every scene and that would be really helpful. Tom is like a theatre actor, and he delves so deep into every last word to work out what it means. It was really cool to play out that dynamic with him. Eddie is very much just a young kid trying to prove himself and interestingly, Harry is one of the only people that talks about that in the show despite their animosity. I always think back to the line where Harry says to Bella in episode two or three: 'Is he such a fuck-up because of me? Is it my fault?' And Harry says, 'No, I think he's just a fuck-up because he's a kid.' And that's the way I see it.
Tom's character is instrumental in showing us that. If I think back to some of the most memorable scenes, for example, the scene in the bathroom at the funeral where he confronts me, it's one of the first times you really see a crack in Eddie's facade - the facade that he's trying to give that he's ready to run this family. All of a sudden you remember he's a kid and he's trying to play a character.
What was it like, in terms of working with actors of that highest caliber?
I had such a good training when I was 18. My first lead role in a film that I ever had was this film called Blackbird, directed by the late Roger Michell, who directed Notting Hill. And I did that with Susan Sarandon, Kate Winslet and Sam Neill. And Ray Wilson. All these fantastic actors. Being 18 and so green to it all was crazy. We were playing as a family and we were all in pretty much every scene. we were living in a house together for seven weeks. It was a real education in the best way. The list of cast members for Mobland just goes on and on. I was definitely nervous going into it as you would be.
Did you learn anything from working with Kate Winslet?
I still think I go to work every day, without a doubt, using the same little tools that I picked up from Kate Winslet. She taught me so much that had a lasting impression on me. Her work ethic is so impressive. But we were filming quite close to her house and she was like such a great host and because it's her area, she really looked after us all. We would all go around for coffee and dinner. I remember sitting with her in her office where she was and she reminded me that we're making films and we're not splitting the atom. It should be really fun and it should be loose and light. But also I think it's important to take your job seriously and to work hard if you want to be good at it. I definitely learned that from her.
Eddie has a very close and at times intriguing relationship with Helen Mirren's character Maeve. Did you enjoy filming that?
Helen is an icon. She is everything you would want her to be. You would never quite know what was going to come out of Maeve's mouth in the best way. There's so many times, for example when we have the dinner party where Pierce and Helen end up getting arrested, and she was chucking out adlibs to Eddie and I'm supposed to have a real poker face. She's just so much fun. I remember turning to Joanne Froggatt and Mandy Moore who played Seraphina and none of us knew what was going on when we sat around the dinner table. Pierce and Helen would be so much fun to do a play with because no two scenes are ever the same.
On her first day, Helen came into my green room and we sat and we had a few cups of tea together. She wanted to know how it was going. She wanted to know all about me and my background. We got a script out and we sat and she asked if I would mind if we would do all of the things that we have for all the episodes that we have so far. And of course I did. I absolutely loved that. And not every actor does that. Not everyone at that level needs to do that.
While we wait to see if Mobland is renewed for season two, what’s next for you?
I mean, I hope it is! I've got a film that will hopefully be coming out later this year called Good Boy. It's with Stephen Graham and Andrea Riseborough. So again, two very actors. It's directed by the legendary British producer, who is just like the king of independent films. And directed by this young guy called Jan Komasa. This will be his first English language film. He was nominated for the Foreign Language Oscar a few years ago for a Polish film he did. He is a really great director and it's a real concept film focusing on a young street kid - my character Tommy - who is kidnapped one night on a night out by this very straight-laced middle class couple who live in the middle of nowhere and they set out to rehabilitate this young man. It's intense.
Now read an interview with actor David Shields, star of Punch
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