Exclusive: Catching Up With Sope Dirisu From Gangs Of London

Concluding its 10-episode first season recently on AMC was the critically-acclaimed drama Gangs of London, which starred a multi-talented ensemble cast including Joe Cole, Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù, Colm Meaney, Lucian Msamati, Michelle Fairley, Paapa Essiedu and Pippa Bennett-Warner.

Set in the heart of one of the world’s most dynamic and multicultural cities, Gangs of London tells the story of a city being torn apart by the turbulent power struggles of the international gangs that control it and the sudden power vacuum that’s created when the head of London’s most powerful crime family is assassinated. The series has been renewed for a second season with AMC on board to co-produce.

For 20 years, Finn Wallace (Meaney) was the most powerful criminal in London. Billions of pounds flowed through his organization each year. But now he’s dead – and nobody knows who ordered the hit. With rivals everywhere, it’s up to the impulsive Sean Wallace (Cole), with the help of the Dumani family headed by Ed Dumani (Msamati), to take his father’s place. If the situation wasn’t already dangerous enough, Sean’s assumption of power causes ripples in the world of international crime. Perhaps the one man who might be able to help him and be his ally is Elliot Finch (Dìrísù), who up until now, has been one of life’s losers, a lowlife chancer with a mysterious interest in the Wallace family. But as the wind of fate blows, Elliot finds himself transported to the inner workings of the largest criminal organization in London. It doesn’t end with the Wallaces though, there are shadowy higher powers at play.

Gangs of London is created by award-winning filmmaker Gareth Evans and his creative partner Matt Flannery and is produced by Pulse Films in association with SISTER for Sky Studios. The series was executive produced by Pulse Films’ founder Thomas Benski, and Lucas Ochoa alongside Jane Featherstone for SISTER and Gabriel Silver for Sky Studios. AMC will serve as co-producer for the second season.

BlackFilmandTV.com caught up with Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù, who plays Elliot Finch. He’s also on the Netflix horror film His House.

What led you to take on this role?

Sope Dirisu: The opportunity to work with Gareth Evans for start was one that I really couldn't turn down. I watched his Raid films before I even knew they were his films. My dad and I used to sit and watch those on repeat sometimes. We would watch them three or four times in one year just because those were great films and my dad has loves martial arts films since he was in Nigeria. To work with Gareth was something I definitely didn’t want to turn down. Also, Gangs of London itself just felt so large, so expensive. It has different families, and political machinations that go on between them and the struggle for power. It felt like Game of Thrones, which has been one of my favorite TV series over the last decade. But like The Sopranos, it felt that larger than life storytelling. They gave me the opportunity to be a part of it. Absolutely, yes. There's no way I'm turning this down. I cleared my schedule. I had to say no to most of other jobs, because this is what I wanted to do.

How would you best describe Elliot Finch?

Sope Dirisu: Elliot is a nobody who's trying to become a somebody. He's also trying to make up for his past. I think that he's a very useful person to have on your side. And a very difficult enemy to have as well. He's extremely resourceful. But also,he lets his emotions and feelings get in the way of his job, which is his problem. 

When you're working with Gareth Evans did you know that you would have to get in shape for this? Did you have to do any work physical wise to get in to get into the role?

Sope Dirisu: Gareth and I had a discussion about who Elliot was and his background and where he had come from. He had spent time in the military. His father was a boxer. So he was a trim man, but he's not Superman.I didn’t need to get washboard abs but it was just important that he looked like someone who could handle himself. They actually actively discouraged me from going to the gym and not to put on any muscle, but it was definitely important that I had the stamina to do those scenes. So Chris Webb, who was one of the stunt and action coordinators, took me under his wing and trained me and taught me the choreography of the fight scenes, and he also worked on my conditioning to make sure I had to fitness to get through four and a half days of shooting in one place. It wasn't necessary for me to look like Henry Cavill or Michael B. Jordan

Can you talk about working with this cast, because you pretty much have scenes with almost everyone?

Sope Dirisu: Yeah, that was another reason I really love that role, because he was able to move in and out of lots of different people's storylines. Like I said earlier, following the different crime families and the effect that losing Finn had on everybody is incredible. I suppose it’s really a wonderful reflection of the City of London. London is one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world and to have you're walking down the street, you hear many, many languages and not just English. To see that represented in a series, I think gives it that authenticity.

I think it represents London really, really well. There's not only diversity in terms of race and culture, but also in gender. I think the women or Gangs of London are really important, because it's easy to fall into the trap of thinking that gangster life is all about the man and guns and stuff like that. I think it's really important that the role that the matriarch of the organization, Marian, is played excellently by Michelle Fairley, our effects on the proceedings and also the president at Warner's Shannon Dumani is very important. Then also Narges Rashidi, who plays Lale, is really an important player in the procedures against London. She really comes into her own further down the series, but also going into what we hope is going to be a second series. I like to see the role of women in our series blossom and grow. That is really important to me, and also to the producers and the writers.