On the very first day of filming MobLand, leading stars Tom Hardy and Joanne Froggatt found themselves in an unusual predicament. Neither had ever met before and were expected to play a couple who had been married for 22 years.
It was a problem they had to solve – fast. How do you build two decades worth of chemistry in an instant, and convince the audience at home?
The making of a marriage
The modern-day gangland drama, directed by Guy Ritchie, follows Irish crime family the Harrigans and their ‘fixer’ Harry Da Souza, played by Tom, as they forcibly swat away their enemies to remain on top of the London criminal underworld. Meanwhile, at home, Harry contends with a strained marriage to Jan (played by Joanne) and their unruly teenage daughter.
In London for the season two premiere of MobLand, TV WEEK sat down with Tom and Joanne to understand how they created such an enthralling dynamic. With the series renewed for two more seasons on Paramount+, it would appear their talent has won the audience over. But the duo admit it took time to get there.
“It was the first conversation we had to have,” Tom, 49, tells TV WEEK of figuring out how to make their relationship convincing.
“Having not met each other, I’d come with a load of preconceived ideas of what I’d like it to be, and I imagined that that would be the same for Jo. So, we had to figure it out quickly, which was a testament to Jo and her skills.
“I’d laid out the markers and said, ‘This is what I think. What do you think? Anything that you don’t like, shoot it down.’”
Tom’s sweet gesture
Joanne adds that it created an immediate icebreaker for the co-stars but also solidified their friendship on a day that was immensely personal. As a new mother returning the work, the actress had a nervous energy that superseded first day filming jitters.
“I have to say, Tom was amazing that day,” Joanne recalls. “I was 12 weeks postpartum and it was the first time I’d been away from my baby for the day and I was a bit nervous. I’d not met Tom; I’d not met Guy [Ritchie]. You sort of hide it, but you’re still kind of a bit anxious.
“So, I sat down with Tom who said, ‘How do we make this couple seem like they’ve been together for 22 years?’ And I was like, what is it about Jan that, at just this stage of their life, she’s feeling disillusioned?
“And then Tom said something brilliant. He said: ‘Harry’s a really powerful man, so the woman he’s with would be equally as powerful, if not more powerful than him.’ And it was as if he’d pulled a chair out from the table for me and said: ‘There you go, you’ve a seat at the table and your ideas are welcome.’
“From that moment on I felt in a safe, creative space with Tom. You couldn’t wish for anything more.”
Tom echoes the sentiment of his co-star.
“You can make mistakes and find out what stuff works and some it doesn’t,” he says. “Because a lot of it is making mistakes and then course correction. So you can get the embarrassment out of the way and kind of say, ‘I’m nervous’ and go from there.”
All in the family
As season two of MobLand starts, Harry is facing countless problems. His work life is becoming all the more difficult as he tries to restrain the violent impulses of Conrad and Maeve, played by Pierce Brosnan and Dame Helen Mirren, while avoiding the glare of the police. And, if he can’t, another gangland war could put them all in an early grave.
For Tom, the role of a ‘fixer’ wasn’t one that he could prepare for in any traditional sense. There is no research as such, just a creative unleashing of the mind.
“How to murder people and dispose of them… there’s too many warrants out on that one!” Tom jokes of trying to research the crime genre. “It’s all in my imagination and the script. There’s a smorgasbord of optionality from pages 1 to 60 and I just pick the how, and portray what is laid out for me.”
Harry’s marriage to Jan is on the brink of dissolution and their teenage daughter, Gina (Teddie Allen), is dating Eddie Harrigan (Anson Boon), a psychotic killer and heir to the family empire.
As parents themselves, the nature of protecting a family is all too familiar. But thankfully not in the heightened environment of MobLand!
“Parenting is the hardest job in the world, isn’t it?” Tom says. “It’s certainly the most important one.”
Joanne jokingly adds: “I don’t have a teenager yet and I hope I’ll never know what it means to parent the criminal underworld!
MobLand season two is available September 18 on Paramount+
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