Andrew Koji on Gangs of London fight scenes with Sope Dirisu

ODE

Andrew Koji on Gangs of London fight scenes with Sope Dirisu Report by Mccallumj. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn

Transcript

00:00It helps my mind, that's why I do it.

00:02Because it's quite a groundbreaking show for British TV, isn't it?

00:05To do this and kick Chopper Dyrus in the nuts.

00:09Andrew, how you doing, mate?

00:11Hello, hello.

00:12I tell you what, I was a big fan of, recently, Black Doves.

00:16Black Doves, ah.

00:16Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:18And then it made me laugh when I saw this, because I was like,

00:22I wonder how he feels after doing something where you get laid out in the first episode.

00:26Is it nice to be back to doing more familiar territory,

00:28where you're a bit of a badass?

00:30Get a bit more, yeah, yeah.

00:32Yeah, yeah.

00:33Well, yeah, they didn't kill me off in the first episode.

00:35Yeah, yeah.

00:37It's always a pleasure not to be killed off straight away, yeah.

00:40And, like, with your sort of background as well,

00:43I mean, I wonder what your take on this is,

00:46because we don't get so many, like, proper action stars anymore.

00:50Like, people who come from, like, a martial arts background and stuff like that.

00:54Jean-Claude Van Damme and stuff, which I grew up with.

00:56Yeah.

00:57Nowadays, it's usually just, oh, this actor does his own stunts,

01:00but he's not really, like, from, like, a physical background.

01:03CGI, yeah.

01:04Do you enjoy being able to use all your skills on camera,

01:07or is it nice when you do something like Doves,

01:09where you're kind of like, I'm just here to be a person, a normal person?

01:13Yeah, you know, it's a bit of both.

01:14I mean, I love what I do.

01:16I love to be working.

01:17I love that it's a privilege, really, to get to train,

01:21and I think martial arts, for me, has become, because of Warrior,

01:25this show has become a very important aspect of my life.

01:27I think it helps my mind.

01:30That's why I do it.

01:31And aside from learning all these cool techniques

01:33and getting to train with some amazing people,

01:36yeah, I mean, I love doing that while I'm young and youngish,

01:40to be able to do this and kick Chopper Dyrus in the nuts

01:46and have an amazing fight scene with him for three,

01:49fight with him for three, four days.

01:50I think I'd love to, yeah, do other things,

01:52but I'm grateful to be working as an actor, really.

01:56We're around the same age, mate, so, yeah, you're young.

01:58You're still young.

01:58We're both still young.

01:59Are we? Are we really?

02:00Because I'm starting to feel it.

02:01I've got great skin.

02:02Don't worry about it, but I am, man.

02:03I'm up there.

02:04I'm up there.

02:06Let's talk about joining the show.

02:07As someone with kind of a martial arts background,

02:10you would be perhaps more aware than most of the kind of provenance

02:13of this show, initially starting off as like a Gareth Evans project

02:18and the Raid, and the Raid 2,

02:20which is like one of the best kind of underground sort of like...

02:24Havoc coming out soon, but we're not promoting that.

02:26We're promoting Gangs of London.

02:27Yeah, Gangs of New York.

02:28Gangs of New York, wow.

02:30Yeah, yeah, 20 years ago.

02:31Gangs of London.

02:32Not having a lot of sleep.

02:34So, like, going into a show like this,

02:37was that an extra kind of frisson of excitement for you

02:41to be able to bring some of those skill sets on the physical side

02:45because it's so important and ingrained into this show?

02:49Yeah, I mean, it's quite a groundbreaking show for British TV,

02:54isn't it?

02:54And especially season one with Gareth Evans doing that.

02:57I think the mixture of the family drama,

03:00plus the Raid-esque style fight scenes,

03:04fused together in the London setting,

03:07plus to be able to play a character like Zeke.

03:13Yeah, I think for me, yeah,

03:16and at the time, you know, growing up 15,

03:1917, 18 years ago when I first started this journey,

03:23there wasn't any characters like that being played by someone

03:25of my ethnicity on TV.

03:27So, to be able to do that is an honor, a privilege.

03:31Yeah, and to get to play in the world with this, you know,

03:34talented cast and to be able to utilize these skills

03:39to do, you know, big fight scene with Choppe.

03:42Yeah, very much.

03:44Yeah, very much happy to be part of it.

03:46What kind of stuff did you grow up on then?

03:48What kind of, like, movies and shows are the things

03:51that inspired you to get involved in this game?

03:54Because when I look at you now,

03:56and I think of those kind of, like, old-school,

03:58kind of early 90s actors.

03:59I think of, like, Jean-Claude Van Damme.

04:00I think of, like, Universal Soldier and those kind of movies

04:02that are just, like, the best thing in the world

04:04and we don't really see many anymore

04:06unless it's, like, Jason Statham.

04:07Yeah, yeah.

04:08Do you think there's, like, a corner of this market

04:10that needs to be explored a little bit more nowadays,

04:13a bit more like your Warrior stuff?

04:14I think, like our director Hong Sung, Korean director,

04:19being brought on to kind of inject this new style

04:24and feeling, he's bringing a lot of his,

04:26he brought a lot of his sensibilities

04:27and style into this season three.

04:32I think Korean cinema is the way they handle the action,

04:38which is smart and character-driven

04:40and interesting with their style and stories.

04:44Plus, they have these action scenes.

04:45I think that's kind of untapped.

04:47A lot of our action martial arts cinema

04:48is, like, B-movie stuff or whatever.

04:51I definitely think there's room and scope to explore more,

04:54but, you know, it requires a lot of smarts

04:57and a lot of good writing and a lot of thing,

04:58and I think, hopefully, a show like Gangs of London

05:00and whatever else it might inspire

05:03that will create more room for British cinema

05:06to do that, I think, you know?

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended