Ṣọpẹ́ Dirisu: "Nobody would be talking about me for Bond if 'Gangs Of London' was terrible"

[Celerity]

Meet Britain's bloody brilliant new action hero, star of the most violent show on TV

https://www.nme.com/features/tv-interviews/sope-dirisu-gangs-of-london-season-2-james-bond-constantine-3327414



“‘We’re going to set you on fire! We’re going to throw you down the stairs! We’ve got to find the worst things we can do to you!’” Typically, when you’re the lead in a successful TV show people are nice to you. You get a bigger trailer. You get more assistants. You can be a bit demanding about your on-set snacks. Not so for Ṣọpẹ Dìrísù. After one series of Gangs Of London, the brutally violent drama in which he plays undercover copper Elliot, Dìrísù says everybody just wanted to hurt him more than last time.

“There was this thing in the stunt team of ‘How do we make it worse?’” he says. “Why?!” Because it’s fun, as the opening scenes of season two illustrates. We find Elliot battling his way through a laundrette full of people trying to kill him, culminating in a fight with an enormous bad guy, played by Žydrūnas ‘Big Z’ Savickas, four-time winner of World’s Strongest Man. “They threw the strongest man in the world at me!” laughs Dìrísù. “Literally. Several times.” At least he didn’t actually get set on fire.

Dìrísù partly brought this on himself. He’s a large part of why Gangs Of London was such a surprise success. Launching in April 2020, the show became Sky Atlantic’s second biggest original drama launch, with 2.23 million viewers (for comparison, the vastly more hyped House of the Dragon debuted with 3.78 million, so more than two million is a lot). Created by Gareth Evans, the director behind astonishing action movie The Raid, Gangs Of London tells the story of a war for power after Finn Wallace, the biggest gang boss in London, is murdered. Dìrísù’s Elliot is supposed to bring the Wallace family down, but a series of ill-advised decisions see him ensnared by the criminal world. At the end of season one, he’s off the force and being blackmailed by very shady crooks.

Gangs Of London is fun, fast-moving and a little silly, but it’s the fight scenes that set it apart. Evans brought the same imagination, impeccable choreography and gore he gave The Raid, producing stunt sequences better than you’ll find in most Hollywood movies. Dìrísù showed he was both a formidable dramatic actor and very handy in a brawl, loudly announcing himself as a leading man. It only makes sense to test the limits of what he can do.



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