A mob wife, daughter or girlfriend couldn鈥檛 survive in 鈥淢obLand鈥 if she wasn鈥檛 strong, says Lara Pulver, who plays the wife of a key figure.
鈥淗elen Mirren, who plays Maeve Harrigan in the show, almost feels like the matriarch puppeteer of the entire family,鈥 Pulver says.
Lara Pulver plays Bella Harrigan in "Mobland."聽
Sex doesn鈥檛 matter when it comes to power, adds Joanne Froggatt, who plays the wife of a mob 鈥渇ixer.鈥 鈥淪ome of the men are more powerful than others; all of the women are very powerful, but completely different characters. They鈥檙e all living in this kind of bonkers, crazy, chaotic, entertaining world.鈥
The series, created by Ronan Bennett, follows two warring mob families and the fixer who comes between them. Played by Tom Hardy, he鈥檚 expected to broker some kind of impasse so an all-out war doesn鈥檛 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, Pulver鈥檚 and Froggatt鈥檚 characters get pulled in.
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Mandeep Dhillon, as Brosnan鈥檚 daughter, does, too.
Mandeep Dhillon stars as Seraphina Harrigan in "MobLand."
Writer Jez Butterworth, Pulver says, 鈥渉as given us so much space to color in who these people are, where they sit in this family dynamic. It鈥檚 complex, it鈥檚 complicated and they鈥檙e all in search of something. For the longest time, they鈥檝e been OK with a certain way of life and, all of a sudden, that鈥檚 no longer enough. As human beings, we will search for something more.鈥
To play the roles, Pulver, Froggatt and Dhillon looked at their own influences.
For example? 鈥淎ll the women in my family are unbelievably strong women,鈥 says Dhillon.
While Froggatt is best known for her work in 鈥淒ownton Abbey,鈥 she has also played murderers and others who have lived through traumatic events 鈥渢hat I haven鈥檛 lived through myself. You play all these roles,鈥 she says, 鈥渁nd what you do is create a character. I don鈥檛 have to like my characters, but I have to understand them. They don鈥檛 have to be good people, but I have to understand their psychology.鈥
Joanne Froggatt stars as Jan Da Souza in "MobLand."聽
In the course of the series, those women have to maneuver a minefield of problems. Among Pulver鈥檚? Her character鈥檚 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, 鈥渂ut his grandmother has been more of an influence of late and it鈥檚 almost like my hands are tied, sadly.鈥
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, 鈥渋s liberating. It鈥檚 not confining. It鈥檚 actually quite the opposite.鈥
鈥淢obLand鈥 airs on Paramount+.
