20-06-2025
Sọpẹ́ Dìrísù Finds Solitude, Narges Rashidi Thrives On Adrenaline: How ‘Gangs Of London' Stars Prep For Intense Scenes
Gangs of London gives Squid Game a run for its money when it comes to TV ultra-violence and also offers up a complex web of intrigue and betrayal. Two of its stars go to very different places to prepare themselves for the more intense days on set. One prefers solitude. The other thrives on noise and adrenaline.
Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù, who plays undercover cop-turned-gangster Elliot Finch, and Narges Rashidi, who is Kurdish gang boss Lale in the show, talked about how they get in the zone when the tension is ramped up.
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'I scream,' Rashidi said. 'I run around a lot to get my adrenaline very high. I feel like once my body has a lot of adrenaline, I can actually go anywhere. That really helps me. It's actually a very technical thing.'
If Rashidi is loud, Dìrísù is at the other end of the volume scale. 'I'll disappear and then you'll only see me appear when it's like: 'Okay, we're ready,'' he said. 'I'll go hide in the corner somewhere, or go for a walk, because sets can be very noisy places. I'll take responsibility to take myself away and maintain the zone or atmosphere that I need.'
The duo were at the Monte-Carlo TV Festival this week talking about their show, which is produced by Pulse Films for Sky in the UK and AMC in the U.S. Detailing the bloody power struggles among London's crime gangs, the current third season picks up the story after a spiked shipment of cocaine kills scores of customers.
Elliot faces off against crime boss Sean Wallace (Joe Cole) in the series and Dìrísù said he's often taken aback by the reactions to his character after a turn of events that saw him almost hang his rival, but then leave him to police. 'What surprised me is that anyone could be on Sean Wallace's side,' he said. 'I've got so much empathy for Elliot that in that duality between them — the 'Batman versus Joker' or Elliot versus Sean [dynamic] — it never made sense to me that someone could be like: 'How could you do this to Sean?''
This week it's Monte-Carlo, while last month Dìrísù was a few miles along the coast at the Cannes Film Festival with Akinola Davies Jr.'s My Father's Shadow, in which he stars. Dìrísù wants to flex different muscles with his work, he told Deadline when asked about the range of films and TV he has worked on.
The first season of Gangs of London aired in 2020 and Dìrísù wanted to avoid being pigeon-holed in the wake of its success. 'It did seem that everybody in the world just wanted me to do more action work,' he said. 'I really love being able to come back to Gangs… but I didn't want it to define what the rest of my career looked like. So, I was very intentional about choosing other projects such as Mr. Malcolm's List, for example, and His House, in different genres. I wanted to be regarded as being a very well-rounded actor.'
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