A mob wife, daughter or girlfriend couldnβt survive in βMobLandβ if she wasnβt strong, says Lara Pulver, who plays the wife of a key figure.
βHelen Mirren, who plays Maeve Harrigan in the show, almost feels like the matriarch puppeteer of the entire family,β Pulver says.
Lara Pulver plays Bella Harrigan in "Mobland."
Sex doesnβt matter when it comes to power, adds Joanne Froggatt, who plays the wife of a mob βfixer.β βSome of the men are more powerful than others; all of the women are very powerful, but completely different characters. Theyβre all living in this kind of bonkers, crazy, chaotic, entertaining world.β
The series, created by Ronan Bennett, follows two warring mob families and the fixer who comes between them. Played by Tom Hardy, heβs expected to broker some kind of impasse so an all-out war doesnβt occur, which could put an end to their syndicates. Pierce Brosnan plays the head of one family, the Harrigans; Geoff Bell plays the leader of the Stevenson gang. Because the drama includes their home lives, Pulverβs and Froggattβs characters get pulled in.
Mandeep Dhillon, as Brosnanβs daughter, does, too.
Mandeep Dhillon stars as Seraphina Harrigan in "MobLand."
Writer Jez Butterworth, Pulver says, βhas given us so much space to color in who these people are, where they sit in this family dynamic. Itβs complex, itβs complicated and theyβre all in search of something. For the longest time, theyβve been OK with a certain way of life and, all of a sudden, thatβs no longer enough. As human beings, we will search for something more.β
To play the roles, Pulver, Froggatt and Dhillon looked at their own influences.
For example? βAll the women in my family are unbelievably strong women,β says Dhillon.
While Froggatt is best known for her work in βDownton Abbey,β she has also played murderers and others who have lived through traumatic events βthat I havenβt lived through myself. You play all these roles,β she says, βand what you do is create a character. I donβt have to like my characters, but I have to understand them. They donβt have to be good people, but I have to understand their psychology.β
Joanne Froggatt stars as Jan Da Souza in "MobLand."
In the course of the series, those women have to maneuver a minefield of problems. Among Pulverβs? Her characterβs son is a handful and could be at the heart of the discord between families.
The Olivier-winning actress jokes that she has tried to deal with him, βbut his grandmother has been more of an influence of late and itβs almost like my hands are tied, sadly.β
Mirren, who plays that grandmother, is great at setting a tone for the others, the three women say.
She empowers them and creates a path for the drama.
Playing in this world, Dhillon says, βis liberating. Itβs not confining. Itβs actually quite the opposite.β
βMobLandβ airs on Paramount+.
