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Watch their full conversation below, or read on for the transcript.
The first season was so brutal in its telling of this underground-criminal story.
This season she kept saying, Just tell them not to kill you off!
Im like, Mom, its not on me.
She was watching it like, Sope!
Thats when I knew the season was really engaging.
This scene is fromthe series premiere.
I remember watching it and thinking,What in the actual hell is this?
The face smear with the blood immediately lets you know what kind of show this is going to be.
Sope, what was your reaction to reading this scene?
But also, when you read it on the page, it doesnt feel like that.
The distance between what is on the page to what you see onscreen is incredible.
When I first read the script, I knew it was something I hadnt seen before.
How many takes does something like this take?SD:Not as long as I thought.
We are quite efficient with it.
CH:Its prepped months and month in advance, though.
It takes a whole team of people to move together in the same balletic way.
But Gareth was like, I want the ashtray smashed, so were going to have an ashtray there!
This is a very intimate fight scene.
Its set in a pub and feels sort of contained.
You have to conceive them, brainstorm them.
Were trying really hard to check that were not repeating something youve seen before or repeating ourselves.
In season one, I had a sequence in episode four which took place in an alley.
Someones attacking, and theres a sniper involved.
The tension and emotion is really important.
My favorite bit of that scene is the dart.
Gareth, who is one of the greatest action directors in the world, has rhythm.
I want to discuss the strong relationship dynamics and competitive energy that develops between the characters.
How did you build that?NR:Were fighting all the time.
Im sort of sad we dont have that!WZ: Oh, youll have it soon.
I became a huge fan instantly.
Its all grounded in the characters, and you really fall in love with them.
Then I became an even bigger fan.
NR:Because were here.
WZ:No, its very, very, very true.
I was so inspired to see Narges in such a powerful role.
I got to spend some time with them in season two.
I did get to spend some time with Sope too.
That sounds so ominous.WZ:Oh, yeah.
Im Iranian American, and there are certain cliches that come with characters from this part of the world.
YetGangs of Londondoes so much to subvert that.
Gang violence in London and the African diaspora community go seemingly hand in hand.
CH:Its also important to remember that, inGangs of London, everyone is equal.
Theyre doing it for different reasons.
I mean, true representation is also being able to be a villain.
We just watched a scene with Lale, and the context here is that she is very mission driven.
She is dealing drugs and leading a gang in London because shes funding revolutionary activities in Kurdistan.
You dont have to talk much.
We did our prep and then we went into the scene and just reacted off each other.
CH:Its the next part of the scene where you really see that.
NR:Theres a spark between them right after this, which is weird.
It shouldnt be, but its there, which is like real life, right?
CH:We shot this at night in the absolute cold, wet rain.
NR:It was an open field and so windy.
Our equipment was flying away.
It was, honestly, probably the toughest physical shoot for me.
Im not used to that British weather at night.
Ive done a lot of shoots in Germany in the cold, but this wasreallytough.
CH:Youd have to sit in your car, it was so cold.
And we were sort of finding it as we went along.
We had real rain and blazing fire.
It was elemental, and it was a really special night.
It was the forming of this relationship between Lale and Sean.
NR: But if you think shes going through a lot here, wait for season two, man!
When we begin season two, we meet a new villain named Koba.
Waleed, how was Koba described to you?
Ive always wanted to play a character like that.
Right off the page, this guy is an animal.
He lives in a world of kill or be killed and survival of the fittest and hes thrived.
The pandemic was a little bit of that, too, so it was very familiar in my mind-set.
Season one was so established in terms of the gangs and feuds and alliances.
And you get to meet the Investors very subtly.
But in season two, you need a central villain.
As the season goes on, its not as straightforward as a goodie or baddie.
Waleed really shook the gangsters up.
Everybodys doing something for a greater cause.
Koba was the exact antithesis of that.
His code is no family.
Season two is about the struggle between power and family, and power is a drug.
Two years later, you have to go back to this character.
Its not that easy to go back to a project and a character that you already created.
There is a challenge to answer new questions: Where is she a year later?
Where is that leading to?
What new color do you want to give this character?
It was almost harder this time.
SD:Yeah, coming back is not something Id experienced before.
Every other show I had been a part of either got canceled or they killed me off.
You have to work within the confines of something youve constructed already.
But there are new facets.
How does the character change?
They cant be unrecognizable as a character, but you have to mine new things.
We were given excellent scripts that put us in the right direction.
CH:For me, the thing that needed to be preserved was danger.
In season one, there was a mantra, which is Is it dangerous enough?
I didnt want to do a TV show where you get comfortable and you know how it goes.
Every episode has to keep twisting and subverting and feel really unpredictable, so you never know whos safe.
It was trying to make the most dangerous show on television.
It takes place in a laundromat using what looks like a single take.
I felt that fight more than any other one!
Thats a testament to the action team of both seasons.
I can feel his weight on my chest again!
Its like a night terror.
Did Zydrunas actually fall upon you?
Is that practical?SD:No, because I wouldnt be here to speak to you now!
But everything else, hes there on top of me.
There was no acting required for Elliot suffering in suffocation underneath the guy hes trying to suffocate.
They come in and put their heart and soul into that action.
We can pull the camera back and see everything happen and have less cutting.
You feel the fight.
Then Tim would go away and start putting things together with the stunt team.
We ended up with the worlds strongest man.
CH:We knew we wanted you catching up with the action, like a wake of death.
You were going down through the carnage just off-screen.
There were some logistical reasons, as well, because of the amount of time wedidnthave.
Because it was me rather than the stunt department having to cut away or do anything fancy.
They could have this massive impact and go straight in on my face.
And every time the stunt happened, Tim would run over and go, Are you okay?
Yeah, man, Im okay.
Can we do it one more time?
We can do it loads more times!
Because Id found a way to fall that was okay for me.
I was really proud to be able to elevate his work by putting my body on the line.
Thats actually him doing that!
NR:The stunt room was my happy place.
Because they didnt want to cut in between.
And we did it!
TC:The shower, yeah!
NR:Im really proud of it.
TC:That was a tough one because it was unforgiving.
It wasnt padded because we were going to have the stunt double do it.
SD:Its all good, man.
And all of those things happened.
It was quite nice to see that put to use.
SD:Right at the end of the second series, Elliot uses a ratchet clamp.
NR:Im a big guns person.
I hope they give me one of these Rambo ones.
And my favorite insult is Fuck you, Sean Wallace.
WZ:My favorite insult was mispronouncing Sean Vallas.
And then my favorite weapon in season two was soup.
Soup?WZ:Youll have to watch to see how I use soup to my advantage.
