MOBLAND WORLD PRESS CONFERENCE - SEASON 2
MOBLAND – World Media Launch – Season 2
Not only I was lucky to get a special screening of MOBLAND, season 2 with Pierce Brosnan attending but I was also able to attend the U.S press conference. Check this out and watch this must show!
MODERATOR: Hello and welcome to this global press conference for MobLand, Season Two. My name is Joe Utichi, and on behalf of Paramount+, it’s my thrill to be your moderator for a spirited discussion with the Harrigans themselves.
HELEN: Good.
MODERATOR: The usual format applies. I have your pre-submitted questions to hand, and we’ll get to as many as we can in the time allotted. And if you’d like to ask additional questions, please feel free to use the Q&A function in the chat and send them through to me. And we’ll get through as many as we can.
MODERATOR: So, without further ado, please welcome the king and queen of the Harrigan Empire, as Maeve and Conrad Harrigan, it’s Helen Mirren and Pierce Brosnan. Welcome, both.
HELEN: Thank you, so fun to be with you.
PIERCE: Thank you. Thank you one and all.
MODERATOR: It’s a great pleasure for us all. Now I’m gonna crack straight on to the questions from our assembled press ‘cause we’ve had a lot of them. And our first questions now comes from Geronimo Rivera, [phonetic] who’s covering for Colombia. And it’s for Helen. “Maeve is a very powerful character, but she rarely needs to raise her voice or show her power openly. How did you build that kind of quiet power into the character?”
HELEN: Well, you know, the deliciousness of the dialogue, you just want to serve the dialogue. And certainly Maeve, unlike Conrad, who’s a volcano, you know, Maeve is a snake-y river, [laugh] you know, snaking around and working her way in and out of everybody’s lives. I guess she’s the ultimate manipulator really.
HELEN: But at the same time, she operates completely instinctively. She doesn’t really think about what she’s doing, you know. Her emotions are very on the surface, and she just goes with the emotion: jealousy, fear, hatred, desire, you know, whatever it is, love. And I love playing that sort of character who just is very, very immediately reactive.
MODERATOR: Now Cooper Lawrence is covering for Australia, and he asks, “Pierce, what’s it like building a performance around a character who’s getting more erratic than age rather than mellowing? What are the challenges?”
PIERCE: Well, the challenges, well, there’s no great challenge really. It’s just absolutely pure joy of playing this character. I’ve ultimate freedom given to me by Jez Butterworth, who writes this and embroiders these incredible scenes and dialogue, which has such kind of rich lyricism, but is also centered in real emotions.
PIERCE: Season two, here were enter into kind of the inner working of this man, Conrad Harrigan, whom I play. Again, it came very instinctively to me when Guy Ritchie offered me the part. I read it, I stared talking about the character. And Guy said, “Look, don’t worry about it. Don’t think about it. We’ll sort it on the day, 15 minutes.” And that’s really how it happened.
HELEN: [laugh]
PIERCE: I came with an accent and a vocalization, and he said, “No. Be Irish. Go Irish, go more Irish. Go mad.” And literally, it happened in 15 minutes, before we shot the first scene.
HELEN: And you’re committed for three seasons. What did you know?
PIERCE: Little did I know, Helen.
HELEN: [laugh] Yeah.
PIERCE: But meanwhile, Helen was on her way to work on that particular day.
HELEN: Yes.
PIERCE: And they said, “Well, Pierce’s gone Irish.”
HELEN: Go Irish, Helen. [laugh]
PIERCE: We both went Irish and played it.
HELEN: I’m so glad we did. Aren’t you?
PIERCE: I’m so glad we did, too.
HELEN: ‘Cause it gives it a lyricism, and a rhythm.
PIERCE: It does.
HELEN: It’s so beautiful. Mm-hmm.
PIERCE: I mean, people can’t figure out where I’m from [laugh].
HELEN: That’s ‘cause they don’t know Kerry, Ireland. They don’t know.
PIERCE: They don’t know. ‘Cause you don’t know Kerry, you see?
HELEN: Exactly.
PIERCE: But anyway, it’s just a joy, you know, and we get asked these questions all the time: what were we thinking, and how did we prepare? I think both of us, you know, we come to work, and we open the suitcase; we put the character on, and [makes noise] off the races we go.
HELEN: Off we go.
MODERATOR: Mm-hmm. Our next question now, we go all the way to Venezuela. Catherine Medina [phonetic] is coving for Venezuela, and it’s for both of you. “This season leans harder into the Gothic, the extreme, the almost fantastical, especially compared to season one. When the script pushed Conrad and Maeve into that heightened register, how do you two keep the marriage feeling like two specific people instead of two symbols of power?”
HELEN: That’s a great question.
PIERCE: That is.
HELEN: And also beautifully observed in the sense that, yes, she’s absolutely right. This is heightened.
HELEN: We’re leaning into the Gothic of the piece and relishing that, loving that. I think the great thing about the relationship between Conrad and Maeve is that, yes, you know, they can go out and commit mayhem, murder and mayhem. But when they’re at home, they’re like a [sic] old married couple.
PIERCE: [laugh]
HELEN: It’s like, “Why are you leaving your socks in the middle of the bedroom?”
PIERCE: That’s it. [laugh]
HELEN: “You know, I’m tripping over them. Put your bloody socks away!” You know? Or “You know where your belt is. It’s been there for 20 years. It’s in the same spot.”
PIERCE: [laugh]
HELEN: So, they are this absolutely mundane, ordinary, old-time married couple.
PIERCE: Yeah.
HELEN: And I think it’s a juxtapositioning of those two elements that people find so, so interesting --
PIERCE: Appealing.
HELEN: -- funny, and appealing.
PIERCE: Juxtaposed besides the violence and the mayhem --
HELEN: Yeah.
PIERCE: -- and the subterfuge and the backstabbing --
HELEN: Yeah.
PIERCE: -- and these kind of mangled, warped lives of people who really have been joined at the hip since they were very young, in the bogs of Ireland and the backwaters of Ireland, on the the streets of Dublin coming out of The Troubles, coming of that, that history that Ireland has lived with. So, all of that is kind of woven in again by Jez Butterworth.
HELEN: Mm. And we brought some of that, too, didn’t we?
PIERCE: We certainly did. [Yeah?].
HELEN: You know, in season one, of course we had brilliant writing, but also, I think Pierce and I, we didn’t exactly take the reins.
HELEN: But you know, we added to it and developed it. And then, Jez saw what we were doing and went even further.
PIERCE: Yeah.
HELEN: So, it was a kind of a two-way street. Don’t you think?
PIERCE: No, you’re right.
HELEN: I felt.
PIERCE: You’re absolutely right.
HELEN: We did. [overlap]
PIERCE: It was a lovely collaboration.
HELEN: Yeah. Yeah.
PIERCE: And it wasn’t one that was discussed.
HELEN: No.
PIERCE: It was just all intuition, sensing and intuition on the part of us as actors --
HELEN: Yes.
PIERCE: -- and he as a playwright.
MODERATOR: Mm-hmm. You know, just speaking personally, like, one of the thing that I find interesting; you mentioned the work juxtaposition there, is also that they’re running this empire that is effectively a Fortune 500 company, you know, but with much higher stakes ‘cause it’s life and death. Do you think that’s playing on them at all?
HELEN: Very much so, very much so, I would say. You know, the stakes are heighted. It’s do or die. The threat is greater because the stakes are rising all the time.
HELEN: You know, London is a very interesting city in the modern right now, in this moment in time. It is awash with money --
PIERCE: Mm-hmm.
HELEN: -- awash with money --
PIERCE: Mm-hmm.
HELEN: -- and criminality and crypto and --
PIERCE: Mm-hmm.
HELEN: -- you know, dodgy, dodgy stuff going on. You know, I love London.
PIERCE: And London is such a character within this film.
HELEN: And London’s such a character within the film, absolutely.
PIERCE: I mean, you really get to enter through many doors and many realms of society and stratas of society --
HELEN: Yeah.
PIERCE: -- through the lens of, you know, this production.
MODERATOR: Mm-hmm. Absolutely. Now we go to Gill Pringle, who’s covering for the U.S., and it’s a question for both of you again. “MobLand, Season Two is the third time you’ve worked together in just three years.”
HELEN: Mm-hmm.
MODERATOR: “It’s clear you’ve become great friends. Can you talk about that friendship?” Maybe you’re getting sick of each other by now. [laugh] I’m not sure.
HELEN: No! God, no.
PIERCE: [laugh]
HELEN: Far from it. I have been quoted, so I would pay a lot of money to work --
PIERCE: [laugh]
HELEN: -- with Pierce Brosnan for the rest of my life.
PIERCE: No, you won’t.
HELEN: [laugh] Which is absolutely true.
PIERCE: Aww.
HELEN: And honestly, we don’t hang. We don’t go out for dinner. Do we?
PIERCE: No, we send the odd text. “How are you doing?”
HELEN: Yeah.
PIERCE: “How’s the summer going?”
HELEN: Yeah.The fires, the hurricane
PIERCE: Yes.
HELEN: That sort of thing. But you know what? We just have a very similar way of working. We arrive, we’re quiet; we get on with it; we love working, we’re positive. And it was so, so great. You know, obviously for me, Pierce is a massive movie star, you know, a huge movie star.
PIERCE: Oh.
HELEN: And it’s so gratifying to find someone of that stature, who comes to the set with, I don’t think humility’s the right word because, you know, we all have our energy and everything. But just with a righteous sense of “Let’s get together. Let’s do the work. Let’s make it as good as possible. Let’s not tread on each other’s toes. Let’s allow the other person to do their work, and I will do my work.”
HELEN: So, you know, I recognized a fellow professional, I guess is the right word --
PIERCE: Yes. We love being actors.
HELEN: Yeah.
PIERCE: We’re born of the same class, of been part of a company. We’re both from the theater, very much Dame Helen from the theater, the classical world. I was classically trained by the same teachers that taught Tom Hardy and Colin Farrells and Michael Fassbender. So, I come from that background of the collective of working as a company, and you know?
HELEN: You know, movie making is the ultimate collaboration. There’s so many, as you know, you know, hundreds of people on the set. Who, every single one of them, are a part of an important, extremely important part of the whole that makes this thing happen on the screen. And when you’re working, and I have to say all of our actors are similar, when you’re working with actors who understand that, that we’re only a part of the whole collaboration.
MODERATOR: Wonderful. Now we’re going to Andre Didyme-Dome. And Andre, I’m so sorry. Your name has come up before, and I butcher the pronunciation every time. So, please do send me a text and let me know how to pronounce it [laugh] the next time. He’s covering for Colombia, and it’s a question for Helen. “In season two, Maeve’s strength is increasingly tied to what’s she’s willing to sacrifice. Do you think power has liberated her, or has it simply given her more to lose?”
HELEN: I would say it’s probably both because you can’t only have one side of coin, you know? You have to take both sides of the coin at the same time. And the higher you aim, the further there is to fall. You know, the great Icarus myth tells us that. You know, you can fly too close to the sun in your ambition, and it will bring you down. And who knows [laugh] whether Maeve will be brought down or not.
HELEN: We’ll see. Well, the audience will see as the series continues. But certainly, she plays a dangerous game, not just for other people, for herself as well.
MODERATOR: Wonderful. April Neale [phonetic] is covering for the U.S., and this is a question for Pierce. “Conrad clearly respects Harry’s instincts and often listens to his counsel, yet Maeve remains deeply suspicious of Harry, his advice, and even his influence over Eddie and Gina. As season two unfolds, and the Harrigan Family becomes increasingly fractured, how does Conrad balance his loyalty and love for Maeve with his growing realization that Harry may be right about the family being pulled apart, particularly with Kat McAllister exerting her influence?”
HELEN: Oh.
PIERCE: Well, that’s a very big question and many levels. You find the man, Conrad, here at this point, going into season two really a fractured man, a man who is dealing with his own mortality, so to speak. Mortality is circling the wagons. His mind is beginning to be affected by something unknown, that he doesn’t really want to have to deal with.
PIERCE: He has to deal with Maeve, whom he loves. You know, he loves the bones of her as he said at the end of season one, which, yes, he’s dealing with the fear, the fear of death, the fear of losing everything. And I have no idea where that will take us into season three. But this season, I think that there will be surprises there. There’s a frailty. There’s also a venomous -- he’s like a trapped spider in a bottle, trying to find his way out. And each, which way he turns, there’s no exit.
HELEN: I’m not afraid of spiders. Are you?
PIERCE: Of course you’re not. No.
HELEN: No, me neither.
PIERCE: I’m not, no. I’m not.
HELEN: No --
PIERCE: No. [laugh]
HELEN: -- in real life.
PIERCE: I thought you were doing Maeve.
HELEN: No, no. “But I’m not afraid of spiders, either.”
PIERCE: [laugh]
HELEN: But no, I’m not afraid of spiders. I love spiders. Yeah.
PIERCE: Yeah, I do. I do.
HELEN: I always rescue them, put them outside.
PIERCE: Of course, yeah. Yeah.
HELEN: Yeah.
PIERCE: Put the little paper under [overlap].
HELEN: Yeah, exactly. Exactly, yeah.
PIERCE: Let them go.
HELEN: Yeah.
MODERATOR: I just think eight is too many legs. That’s just my personal opinion.
PIERCE: [laugh]
HELEN: [laugh]
MODERATOR: Cooper Lawrence is covering for Australia. And she asks a question to Helen. “You’ve said the strength of the women is what makes MobLand so powerful. With the family fracturing this season, does Maeve’s power come from holding the Harrigans together or from knowing exactly when to let them fall apart?”
HELEN: Oh, very good question. Maeve is not exactly a holding-the-family-together person, is she, really? [laugh]
PIERCE: Mm, mm.
HELEN: Considering what she’s done in the past.
HELEN: You know, power is everything, I guess, or the success of the family within the community that the family operate in, the underworld, is all important to her. And I think she will sacrifice anyone to that, honestly. And it's very interesting. You know, I love the female characters in MobLand because every single one of them have agency and complication. They're not, not a single female character, they're just as a cipher, you know, from the youngest all the way through.
HELEN: And I love that. And it gives a whole piece of complexity and an interest, I think, really sort of drives the story forward. And including the young ones, you know, and I think Teddie's character and Seraphina are going to be huge challenges to Maeve, I think, in the future.
MODERATOR: Absolutely, they are. Now Lily Liu [phonetic], who's covering for China, asks a question of both of you that I am very curious to ask about as well. The new season really kicks it up a notch.
MODERATOR: Can you please discuss the experience of filming the gunfights and action scenes at the dog racing park?
PIERCE: It was how we kicked off the season. It was our first days.
HELEN: And Guy Ritchie directed that episode with such elan and fun. And he was in his milieu, wasn't he?
PIERCE: Oh, completely.
HELEN: And you were saying that he was showing us.
PIERCE: Oh, he was showing us how to do it. He set the scene up. All morning, we'd come in and we had all the gangsters there. And so, we knew how we were gonna shoot the moment.
HELEN: We had the choreography of it anyway.
PIERCE: Yes.
HELEN: We planned that, yes.
PIERCE: He wanted to play us both. So, he asked us to stand aside in front of the whole crew.
HELEN: And watch him.
PIERCE: Guy came in and played Conrad and played Maeve, shooting everybody with a sound effect of [makes noise], you're dead, [makes noise], you're dead, [makes noise].
HELEN: And we had lovely, lovely extras, all those great guys.
PIERCE: They were.
HELEN: They were so sweet and excited to be there. It was a lovely lot. I loved that day. It was so fun.
PIERCE: It was fabulous. All the extras were absolutely impeccable.
HELEN: Yes.
PIERCE: You know, they made you real.
HELEN: Yeah.
PIERCE: Such a nuanced.
HELEN: They were great. So important, you know? Extras are so important. We always appreciate great extras. What is it? They're not called extras. They're called?
MODERATOR: Supporting artists.
HELEN: Supporting artists.
PIERCE: Supporting artists.
HELEN: Our supporting artists.
PIERCE: Supporting artists.
HELEN: Yeah.
MODERATOR: Indeed. But neither of you are strangers to wielding weaponry. I mean, you've done it plenty of times in your careers and possibly outside of your careers as well. I don't know. But I do wonder, like, whether that's the side of the job that you quite enjoy. It seems like there's always a great joy to take from just sort of shooting people and taking part in action.
HELEN: Guns are evil.
PIERCE: Well, guns are obviously evil.
HELEN: They're so satisfying.
PIERCE: [laugh] They are very satisfying when you hold them and, you know, when you pick up an weapon.
HELEN: Awful, really. They're wonderful and awful at the same time.
PIERCE: It is very seductive.
HELEN: Mm-hmm.
PIERCE: But I really couldn't tell you much about weapons.
MODERATOR: Mm-hmm.
PIERCE: I just pretend to know what I'm doing, you know?
HELEN: Yes. [laugh]
PIERCE: And I've seen it in the movies. I think, "Oh, that's a good move."
HELEN: Yeah.
PIERCE: And we all kind of repeat each other's moves somewhat.
MODERATOR: Yeah.
HELEN: We have great armorers, you know, fantastic armorers who teach us how to do the thing. I'm always hopeless. I can never pull the thing back, you know? My thumbs aren't strong enough.
PIERCE: Right, yeah.
HELEN: I'm hopeless. [laugh]
PIERCE: You catch your thumb stuck in it.
HELEN: Ow.
PIERCE: But I say, I don't own weapons. I'm in agreement.
PIERCE: Mm.
PIERCE: We see so much violence now in our lives.
HELEN: Yes.
PIERCE: And.
MODERATOR: Yeah, but the guns may be an art, but not in real life, for sure. And it certainly it photographs well however incompetent you feel with them.
MODERATOR: Now, we have another question now from André, who's covering for Columbia, whose name, Didier May-Daumais [phonetic], I'm pretty sure is how you pronounce, but I could be wrong. For Pierce, Conrad has built his identity around control, but Season 2 seems to challenge the very idea that he can protect his family through power. What happens to him when control is no longer enough?
PIERCE: Well, you have to watch the show. [laugh]
HELEN: Yeah, exactly. [laugh]
PIERCE: I'm gonna possibly begin to answer that. You have a man, and I've said this, and I love the image that mortality is circling the wagons.
PIERCE: He's a man of a certain age, a certain time. He has been given a diagnosis which is definitely going to transform his mental state and add to his kind of intoxication with power and trying to hold onto that power.
MODERATOR: Mm. Rebecca Murray now is covering for the US, and it's a question for both of you. Conrad and Maeve have a pretty twisted marriage. How do you make two completely ruthless people still feel like a believable couple?
HELEN: With great writing. With great writing.
PIERCE: Yes.
HELEN: And when you see Maeve and Conrad at home, in the bedroom, in the bathroom, they're always one of them's on the loo and the other one's shouting, you know? [laugh]
PIERCE: Sit.
HELEN: From the bathroom into the bedroom. They are an absolute -- you know, the mundane domestic life of Maeve and Conrad is so identifiable. It kind of anchors them in this world.
PIERCE: Mm.
HELEN: I always love those scenes, Pierce. I don't know about you.
PIERCE: I know I enjoy them.
HELEN: I so look forward to those scenes.
PIERCE: They are very good.
HELEN: Because they're so recognizable, aren't they?
PIERCE: So familiar. So familiar.
HELEN: Yeah.
PIERCE: It's like almost their own little play within this madcap world. And that's what grounds it. That's what makes the audience, I think, not only their characters, but, you know, the other characters, the relationships, but very much the mom and dad at home trying to run this empire of violence and mayhem.
HELEN: Mm, mm. Yes. But at the same time, you know, arguing about, you know, putting a t-shirt in the wash, right wash bag right washing thing, or, you know.
PIERCE: Mm-hmm. The dogs.
HELEN: Or the dogs.
PIERCE: The dogs.
HELEN: Yeah, who's feeding the dogs.
PIERCE: Yes.
HELEN: Let's not forget the dogs, you know.
MODERATOR: Absolutely. Now Magnus Sundholm, sorry, is covering for Sweden. And it's a question for Pierce. Tom said one of the joys of watching you in MobLand is seeing you play against type. After spending so many years as probably the most polished man in movies and television, I might add, how much fun is it to play someone as dangerous and monstrous as Conrad?
PIERCE: Oh, I embrace the world of Conrad. It's been a gift in my life. It really has. It was an unexpected one.
PIERCE: But Guy Ritchie just came bearing this wonderful gift of playing this man. It's liberating. It's wonderful to crack the mold of what you've created over so many years or how people perceive you. And I've played into it for many reasons, because I enjoy that world, playing that sophisticated, suave, call it whatever you want, character. You know, and I started working with Remington Steele, which brought me to America.
PIERCE: I based the whole character on Cary Grant, and it somewhat stuck with me. And I played it to the best of my abilities. But now to play Conrad at this time in life.
HELEN: Fantastic.
PIERCE: It is.
HELEN: What a cherry on the cake, really.
PIERCE: It really is.
HELEN: Yeah.
PIERCE: To be still at the table.
HELEN: And how great that they thought of you, actually.
PIERCE: How great.
HELEN: How fabulous that they thought of you.
PIERCE: I don't know.
HELEN: They understood that it was in there, that you could.
PIERCE: Yes.
HELEN: That volcano was there.
PIERCE: I don't know who came up with the idea of throwing my name in the ring for Conrad, but.
HELEN: Mm. And vice versa, me with Maeve.
PIERCE: Yeah.
HELEN: You know, a nice person like me, so sweet, so kind.
PIERCE: [laugh] It's foul.
HELEN: Yeah. [laugh]
PIERCE: [Much swilling?]
HELEN: Yes, this queen.
PIERCE: Venomous queen. This empress. My love, my life. She is my oxygen. Without her, I would be rudderless.
HELEN: Vice versa.
MODERATOR: [laugh] What a lovely sentiment. Now, we go to Veronica Zajdella [phonetic], who's covering for Slovenia. For both, and Pierce, you've answered this just a little now. You both have very versatile careers, but I assume these mob roles might be the most fun to play, are they?
HELEN: Yes.
PIERCE: They are.
HELEN: Yeah.
PIERCE: One hundred percent.
HELEN: Yeah.
PIERCE: I think we both revel in playing Maeve and Conrad. And we await now Season 3, and are so grateful that we are turning that corner. And the curtain will go up on November the 15th.
HELEN: And I love you say "the curtain goes up," because I think one of the great pleasures both Pierce and I get from MobLand is the theatricality of it.
PIERCE: Mm.
HELEN: And we both started in the theater. And now we can do theater without having to eight shows a week.
PIERCE: Thank you.
HELEN: And Wednesday matinees. [laugh]
PIERCE: Exactly.
HELEN: Do you know what I mean?
PIERCE: No, no.
HELEN: We've got the great joy of playing these theatrical big over a character --
PIERCE: Mm-hmm. Really expansive scenes, four, five, six, seven pages.
HELEN: Yes. Written by a playwright, incidentally.
PIERCE: Exactly so. And the ensemble of actors that we work with.
HELEN: Yes, right.
PIERCE: And we're down there, Ealing Studios, one of the great bastions of British cinema, the Ealing Comedies.
HELEN: Mm.
PIERCE: And then we go to the Cotswolds, you know, maybe every week, every other week.
HELEN: Yes. With Meghan and Harry will be our neighbors soon, won't they?
PIERCE: They will be, won't they? They'll pop in.
MODERATOR: Already, I think.
HELEN: Yes.
MODERATOR: Yeah.
HELEN: Lovely, the thought of Meghan and Harry and Maeve and Conrad.
PIERCE: There you go.
HELEN: At a cocktail party together. [laugh]
MODERATOR: Okay, that's a scene I need to see in Season 3.
PIERCE: Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Bring it on.
HELEN: Yes.
MODERATOR: We're running out of time. So, we just have a couple more questions before we wrap up. And this one comes from Samantha Afole Prince [phonetic], who's covering for the UK. It's great to see Jasmine Jobson is also returning for Season 2. Will we see more of her character as the season evolves?
HELEN: I guess.
PIERCE: I hope so.
HELEN: Jasmine.
PIERCE: Yes. Yes, I hope so.
HELEN: Yeah, yeah.
PIERCE: Definitely.
HELEN: Yes.
PIERCE: Brilliant character. That, again, you know, it goes back to Jez. He's embroidered these characters that sit there quietly or like Emmett J. Scanlan.
HELEN: Yeah.
PIERCE: Paul.
HELEN: Yes, Paul. Yes.
PIERCE: And they slowly begin to.
HELEN: Sort of appear.
PIERCE: Yes.
HELEN: I mean, they just seem someone sort of.
PIERCE: Ciphers.
HELEN: Ciphers. And then that's what he does so brilliantly, isn't it? Every single character is complex and interesting. And oh, where's this one going?
PIERCE: I mean, they could be the character's last one standing.
HELEN: Absolutely.
PIERCE: Really, at day's end.
HELEN: Yes.
PIERCE: When the curtain falls.
HELEN: Yes.
PIERCE: Just bang.
HELEN: Yes.
PIERCE: It's him. It's her. They saw the chink in the armor. So.
MODERATOR: Mm. Wonderful. Now, our last question is going to go to Samira Ben-Amour, who's covering globally. And it's for both of you. Both of your characters are defined by power, loyalty, and the secrets that they keep. How do you think the experience and wisdom you've gained over your careers influences the way that you play people who must constantly choose between protecting their family and preserving their own humanity in MobLand?
PIERCE: That's a big question.
HELEN: That's a big question. I think, inevitably without even thinking about it, you bring your life's experience to the work. Whether it's in the character or in the way you arrive on set and the way you relate to your fellow workers, you know, inevitably you bring all of your triumphs and your disappointments and your dreams of the future, whether they were realized or dashed or whatever it was. You bring all of that, you know, to the set.
HELEN: And you bring your absolute joy and appreciation of great writing. And for both Pierce and I, we talk about this a lot.
PIERCE: Mm-hmm.
HELEN: But for us, it all starts with the writing, you know? It all starts with what's on the page. And I think Pierce and I both just allow our instincts to take over. We don't think about it really. We don't talk about it. We don't have intimate discussions about, I think he should, I feel this, and what do you think he feels? We just allow the scene to happen, don't we?
PIERCE: Absolutely.
HELEN: Mm-hmm.
PIERCE: It's keep it as simple as possible.
HELEN: As Bruce Beresford would say.
PIERCE: As Bruce Beresford would say.
HELEN: Yes.
PIERCE: Keep it simple.
HELEN: Yes. [laugh]
PIERCE: Show up, say the lines, don't bump into the furniture, get off the stage.
HELEN: But bring energy and commitment and passion's not the right word, but excitement.
PIERCE: Mm-hmm.
HELEN: And I think we're both still really excited to be on the set.
PIERCE: Very much so.
HELEN: We're like kids, really.
PIERCE: I love doing what we do.
HELEN: Yeah.
PIERCE: It's a joy. And when you're not doing it, you're kind of like, who am I?
HELEN: Yeah.
PIERCE: Where am I going?
HELEN: Exactly. Well, you're an artist.
PIERCE: Because it's a good world. [laugh]
HELEN: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
PIERCE: So, we await Season 3 here.
HELEN: Yes, we do.
PIERCE: Two of us, along with our fellow actors. And we have no idea where the road is gonna take us. But so far, so good. And it's great to celebrate it with an audience.
MODERATOR: Absolutely. Well, I'm sure every audience member, if they're anything like me, will be looking forward to traveling that road with you. I'm so sorry to say that's all the time we have, but I do wanna say a huge thank you to Pierce and to Helen for joining us today. And also, to the World's Press for your time and your excellent questions. And I'm so sorry for all the ones we weren't able to get to. I also want to remind you that the action-packed second season of MobLand hits Paramount+ this Friday, September 18th, and you will not want to miss a minute of it. Thank you, everyone, and goodbye.
HELEN: Thank you.
PIERCE: Bye.
HELEN: Bye-bye. Bye-bye, everyone.
PIERCE: Bye.
