Diksha Sundriyal
In Paramount+’s ‘MobLand,’ Tom Hardy plays the role of a fixer named Harry Da Souza. He works for the Harrigans, a crime family operating in London, and his job includes cleaning up their messes. Harry is pretty good at his job, but things start to get complicated with the war that brews with the Stevensons, the criminal rivals of the Harrigans. As both parties try to push each other out of the game while dealing with the personal conflicts between them, Harry finds himself stuck in the middle of the clash. Created by Ronan Bennett, the crime drama series has a power-packed cast with characters who are scary and compelling at the same time.
MobLand Focuses on a Fictional Turf War Between Two Crime Families
‘MobLand’ is a fictional story that originated from another fictional TV show. It was initially cooked up as a spinoff of Showtime’s hit crime series, ‘Ray Donovan,’ starring Liev Schreiber and created by Ann Biderman. It follows the story of the eponymous fixer who works in LA and deals with a celebrity clientele, which requires him to get them out of controversial situations that could ruin their lives. Though fictional, it was inspired by the work of real fixers that Biderman knew worked within the confines of Hollywood.
The success of ‘Ray Donovan’ led the network to consider a spin-off series set on the other side of the pond. Initially titled ‘The Donovans,’ it was supposed to focus on the origin story of the titular family but in the context of a more criminal background. As the story developed, it was decided to keep it a standalone series with no connection to the original, and working titles ‘The Associate’ and ‘Fixer’ were used for a while until they eventually decided to name it ‘MobLand.’
While still focusing on the life of a fixer, the creators of the show set it apart from the Showtime series by giving more space to the conflict between two warring gangs in London. Ronan Bennett has already worked with a similar story in ‘Top Boy,’ while Guy Ritchie brought on board his own experience of having written and directed crime dramas over the years. Both of them wanted to focus on something that would feel like an old crime movie and the saga of a complicated family, which would humanize the fictional characters to the point that they would seem real and believable to the audience.
Tom Hardy Brought a Unique Perspective to Harry Da Souza
When Tom Hardy was brought on board to play the role of the Harrigan family fixer, Harry Da Souza, he was enticed by the idea of playing a role that would allow him to explore the darkness within the character while also having fun with it. In building the character, Hardy wanted Harry to come across as someone who feels harmless to the people who don’t know what he does for a living. He infused the character with a sense of calm that makes him seem innocuous. The actor played the character as a very nice and polite person whom no one would expect to be as violent and dangerous as he later turns out.
In describing the essence of the character, Hardy described Harry as somewhat of a butler for the Harrigans in the sense that he always remains in the background. He is always there when he is needed, but at the same time, he remains a majorly invisible figure, which is what allows him to do his work with more efficiency. At the same time, the actor and the writers also wanted to present a homely side of the character, which adds a sense of normalcy to his otherwise turbulent job. This presentation of Hary as a family man also gives space for the audience to identify and, hence, empathize with him on some level, adding more gravitas to the fictional character.
Read More: Where is Paramount+’s MobLand Filmed?
