00:00I love Maeve.
00:01They love you.
00:01They love Maeve.
00:02They love hating you.
00:03Yes.
00:04I say it's like Jacobean drama.
00:06I have thought of late, you know, when hanging my hat up.
00:09Mr. Pierce Brosnan, Dame Helen Mirren.
00:11What an absolute joy it is to be in your company today.
00:15Mobland series.
00:16Look at this.
00:16Look at the vibes we've created already.
00:18Mobland series too.
00:19You're more unhinged than ever, I think, in this.
00:22We see you guys as these, like, elder states people of cinema,
00:25people who are suave and dependable and steadfast.
00:30But it must be a lot more fun to play off the reservation.
00:34Crazy, isn't it?
00:35One hundred percent.
00:36One hundred percent.
00:37One hundred percent.
00:38Absolutely.
00:39We hit the ground running.
00:40We had no idea, really, what we were all walking into.
00:43All we knew was the Guy Ritchie world, and we both loved Guy's work.
00:46And, you know, then came, you know, it was the scripts originally,
00:51Ronan Bennett, and he's there writing.
00:53And then Jez Butterworth comes in.
00:56And it just elevated itself all the way through,
00:58and then a fantastic company of actors.
01:01I think the best compliment I can give to your performances
01:04in the first one is that, you are horrible in this.
01:07I almost have some sympathy for Conrad in a way,
01:10because you kind of think, like, he's a twisted trouble individual,
01:16but kind of, bless him.
01:18Whereas Maeve, you are just like...
01:19There's no...
01:21They just love to hate you.
01:22That must be great to get your teeth stuck into.
01:24I hope people don't hate Maeve.
01:26I love Maeve.
01:27They love you.
01:27They love Maeve.
01:28They love hating you.
01:30Yes.
01:30Yes.
01:31I guess that's the interesting thing about acting.
01:33Like, you have to sympathize with the character.
01:35You have to love your own character, even if they do difficult things.
01:38Oh, I don't love Maeve.
01:38No, don't get me wrong.
01:39But I would like other people to at least be entertained by her,
01:43if you know what I mean.
01:45But I think that, you know, the great thing about the piece
01:48is it's absolutely popularist, for want of a better word, you know.
01:53But it's very, it's actually very heightened.
01:58It's very literary.
02:00Mmm.
02:00And it's that magic combination of Guy Ritchie and Jez Butterworth
02:05that sort of just raises it up into a fantastical world.
02:11And I say it's like Jacobean drama.
02:14It has that quality of Jacobean drama of being very extreme, very out there.
02:20I don't know if you've ever seen any Jacobean plays.
02:24You'd have to run some titles behind me.
02:26The White Devils.
02:28The White Devils.
02:29The White Devils.
02:30Yeah.
02:31It's always, I mean, it's full of torture and terrible, terrible goings on.
02:35Gruesome.
02:35Gruesome.
02:36But at the same time, poetic.
02:39Yeah.
02:39And that's kind of what, you know, some of Maeve's speeches are terrible,
02:43but they're incredibly poetic as well.
02:46And that's the writing.
02:48Well, they're very kind of well-bred, well-spoken, very smart people.
02:52There's a lot of very intellectual characters.
02:54They're Irish.
02:55They're all doing terrible things in different ways,
02:56but there's so much more going on under the surface.
03:00And I was going to say, great casting as well,
03:01because, again, we've seen you guys as these, like,
03:05dependable, steadfast characters in the past,
03:07and Tom being kind of more unhinged character,
03:10whereas in this it's a whole, like, swap over.
03:13Yes, it's true.
03:14He's the sort of, he's the balanced one,
03:16and we're the mad ones, yeah.
03:17I wonder, you guys have done so much in two incredible storied careers.
03:22Where do you find your love and your passion in acting these days?
03:26Like, does that change throughout your career
03:28in certain types of projects or roles you want to play,
03:30or certain things you enjoy more when you're on set or on stage
03:34that may have been different 20 years ago, 30 years ago?
03:37Well, I've always loved being an actor.
03:40I love the world and the company of actors and storytellers.
03:44And I've always tried to be somewhat an unexpected surprise for myself.
03:49You know, you follow a certain path, you get cast in certain styles of acting,
03:55which you've kind of created for yourself because you wished it and wanted it.
03:59And then how do you deviate from that?
04:02How do you find work that's really going to challenge you?
04:04I have thought of late, you know, when hanging my hat up and what I'm going to do.
04:11Because, you know, you do think of those things.
04:13It's a very demanding life in some respects
04:17because you're always constantly in motion, you're on the road.
04:21I mean, the two of us are like nomads.
04:23We've talked about this and that's why we love it as well.
04:26What's the next adventure? Where are we going to go?
04:29What's the story?
04:31But ultimately, a blessing, a blessing.
04:34I know you like your painting, Piers, but please don't rob us of more performances on screen
04:38and possibly even on stage, maybe in the future, not write anything off yet.
04:42You could drag him up on the boards. That would be a fun...
04:45Ooh!
04:46There we go. I'm not completely convinced by that reaction, but anything can happen.
04:49When anything comes to mind.
04:51Oh, yes. We have talked about this.
04:54You're a rider. I only do evenings and the odd weekend.
04:58Oh, yeah. I don't know.
04:59I mean, playing in Mobland is the closest I'll get to going back on the stage.
05:05Yes, because it is theatrical.
05:06It is theatrical.
05:08And again, because of the writing for Jez Butterworth
05:10and the wonderful directors we have, you know,
05:13we're allowed to go in as an ensemble of just a two-hander scene,
05:18maybe five, six, seven pages long, you know.
05:22And you get to work alongside one of our greatest on stage and screen.
05:25Truly.
05:26Day by day.
05:27Well, I've really enjoyed the spoils of your efforts, guys,
05:30and I look forward to hopefully plenty more spoils to come.
05:33Thanks very much for your time today.
05:34Real pleasure.
05:35I'll catch you down the road.
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