Pierce Brosnan, Tom Hardy on MobLand: "It's no holds barred"

Brosnan plays Conrad Harrigan, a grizzled Irish “Godfather” at the head of an organised crime family that’s fighting for power within a global crime syndicate, while Helen Mirren is his wife, Maeve. Hardy is Harry Da Souza, their loyal fixer.

The series is set in a dimly lit and frequently cloudy present-day London, where mobsters tell their henchmen to “call the Maltese and tell them there’s a gap in the market on the brown” and nightclubs are seemingly only allowed to play the Prodigy. In other words, it’s a gangster series directed by Guy Ritchie.

“I have great admiration for Guy Ritchie’s work and the style that he has created for himself. The landscape of film-making that he has embroidered over the years is wildly entertaining,” Brosnan says. “And this family [the Harrigans] is so mangled and warped – it’s twisted, incestuous and dangerous.”

Brosnan, a ridiculously well-preserved 72-year-old, is softly spoken and his voice is almost musical in its cadence. Hardy, 25 years his junior, by contrast, radiates an agitated restlessness and each question is met with a waterfall of words. I ask him what attracted him to the role of Harry. “The world [of MobLand] is something that I’ve already been a part of with lots of films and characters,” he says, “but this is long-form so there’s optionality for nuance and depth. It’s a good playground.”

Brosnan and Hardy both have form in gangster films – Hardy played both Kray twins in Legend, he portrayed Al Capone in Capone and was in Guy Ritchie’s 2008 London gangster film RocknRolla. “I like to find the differences between similar types, perhaps,” he explains. Meanwhile, Brosnan, who first found fame in the 1980s TV series Remington Steele, made his big-screen debut aged 27 in the gangster classic The Long Good Friday, which of course starred Helen Mirren. He was listed as “1st Irishman” and although he didn’t share any scenes with his MobLand co-star, he says with pride: “It still holds up as a British gangster movie. And now, all these years later, Helen and I are working together again.”

It was his performances as James Bond in four blockbusters from 1995 to 2002 that secured cinematic immortality for Brosnan, but since then he has chosen diverse roles in such films as The Thomas Crown Affair, The Ghost Writer, Mrs Doubtfire and two Mamma Mia! movies. “Every job is a challenge and it all comes with a thump of anxiety,” he reveals, “because you have to do something. What are you doing on the stage? Why are you there? So that’s constant. You live with that. You live with that stress all the time. And that’s what’s so exhilarating. That’s what makes you alive.”

What made him anxious about this role? “You don’t need to know that,” he says. I don’t need to know but I’m interested, I respond. “It’s the excitement of making a very strong decision on a character – a voice and attitude,” he concedes. “And not knowing where it’s going story-wise.”

Brosnan’s accent in MobLand has, as it happens, come in for some criticism. The Irish Independent’s review said Conrad’s speaking voice was “all over the shop and a huge distraction”. This must have been particularly upsetting given that Brosnan is actually Irish. “My own accent is very soft,” he says, “Conrad’s accent is a million miles away from me.” The inspiration for the accent was a man suggested by his dialect coach. “I told him that I needed a Kerry accent,” he explains, “so he gave me the name of a man and I googled the guy and that was it. It was a Kerry accent. And so, I just gave it full tilt.”

Does he like Conrad? “I like him. I love him,” he says. “I enjoy him. I mean, I don’t want to be that person – he’s a psychopath.” He’s not exaggerating: within the first few minutes of the first episode, Conrad – a man who, in Brosnan’s words is “brutish, cunning, charming and dangerous” – has killed a man by crushing his windpipe with his shoes.

Brosnan is no stranger to inflicting great violence on screen – as anyone who heard his version of SOS in Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again will confirm – but it’s rare to see him play a villain. Is that liberating? “Yes, there are no holds barred,” he admits. “You own the stage, you have wings to fly and be anything you wish.”

Hardy as Harry Da Souza also enforces his employer’s desires and needs through threats and violence. When he’s not killing gangsters, Harry is trying to salvage his marriage to avoid going to couples therapy with his wife, played by Joanne Froggatt. “He’s a dad, he has a partner and kills people,” says Hardy. “The compartmentalisation is what makes him fascinating because nothing spills into other compartments.”

Harry is intense, troubled, capable of great violence but also very funny – when he visits a man in hospital to persuade him to cooperate, he says, “I, or possibly one of my associates, depending on my availability, will find you.” I tell Hardy that I was surprised how often I found myself laughing while watching MobLand. “I think making something very pedestrian or civilised can turn the tone of a scene into something with an element of comedy,” Hardy agrees.

Hardy’s father used to write scripts for the Irish comedian Dave Allen, and as a young boy Hardy, who grew up in East Sheen and attended private school, would watch Hancock’s Half Hour and Monty Python. I wonder if he ever gets sent scripts for light-hearted comedies?

“The scripts that I get are fairly funny but tend to often be connected to really dark matter, which others might find unpalatable but I find absolutely normal,” he says. “A lot of the things that I find subjectively funny deal with very dark stories of the tales of the human condition when they’re in utter crisis and despair. There’s a wicked humour in sitting in pain.”

It’s just about possible to see MobLand as an exploration of a particular type of damaged masculinity. I ask Brosnan what he thinks is eating away at Conrad, what explains his need for power and his facility for violence, and he says it’s because “his was a youth that was twisted inside out by abandonment and there’s a deep anger there for the man he’s become”.

So what does Hardy think MobLand says about men and masculinity? “What does MobLand specifically say about men and masculinity?”, he repeats the question and leaves it, and me, hanging.

“You know what, you could open up an entire can of worms on that in a really interesting manner,” he says finally. “And I think this conversation is part of the reason why we make art. I also think that as part of the team that created it, it’s not for me to have that conversation whilst promoting it. But when people sit and watch it, I’d be interested to see what their discussions are.” So you’re saying it’s a good question but you’re not going to answer it? “Of course not,” he says. “Why would I?”

I try again, MobLand is often very violent and the violence isn’t cartoonish. Did he have any worries that the series in any way glamorised violence? “It’s not glamorous – it’s horrible,” he says. “Violence and cruelty has existed in literature and theatre from the Iliad and the Odyssey, to the Bible and Dante’s Inferno. I think when it comes to art, nothing is really sacred – it’s a safe place to play and evoke conversation. We watch in order to better understand the human condition. It’s entertainment but there’s a lesson to be learnt from most stories.”

A braver soul might have questioned whether MobLand stands comparison with the Iliad and the Bible, but if there’s a lesson to be learnt from talking to Tom Hardy it’s that it’s wiser to just nod and agree lest he – or possibly one of his associates, depending on his availability – finds you.

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