Alex Fine On MobLand, Popping Tyres & Why You Should Always Find The Local Bingo Hall

If you’ve been watching MobLand, you’ll know Alex Fine as Donny – the cool, quietly calculating American fixer sent across the Atlantic to do Kat McAllister’s dirty work. In series two, Donny steps out of the shadows and into the life of Jan Da Souza, wife of Tom Hardy’s Harry, just as their marriage hits a rough patch. We caught up with him to talk series 2, filming on Tower Bridge, and why the first thing he does in any new town is hit up the bingo hall.

Q&A: Alex Fine

You’re currently starring in MobLand series two. Can you give us a quick elevator pitch of the show?

It’s about a crazy crime family, the Harrigans, led by Helen Mirren and Pierce Brosnan. They have a man who fixes their problems – Harry Da Souza, played by Tom Hardy. In the first season they get into a bit of trouble, and Harry has to call in a favour from a super-powerful woman named Kat McAllister. That’s where I come in. I work for Kat as her fixer, and I come over from the States. In the second season, my role gets bigger.

Tell us a little more about your character, Donny.

In the first season he’s mysterious. You don’t really know anything about him, except that he works for Kat McAllister – he just feels like a mysterious bad guy. In the second season you see that he’s very calculated and intelligent, and that he’s good at blending into his surroundings.

What’s in store for Donny this series?

I’m sent to pull on the strings of Jan Da Souza, Harry’s wife. We know they’re in a rough patch, and I have to sneakily enter her life. You see that play out across the series.

How do you get into character before going on set?

The character was so well written that I didn’t have to think twice about it – I pretty much knew what was expected, which was nice. I also got to work with teachers from RADA on dialect and things like that beforehand, which was great. Then, when I went to set, I’d have a playlist for the scenes I was doing that day. I use music to get into character more than anything.

Are there any particular songs you used to get into Donny’s headspace?

In episode three there’s a Fleetwood Mac song that I really liked, ‘Dreams’. Other times it would be pretty intense LA rap, like this guy named OhGeesy. It really depended on the attitude, or how I wanted Donny to walk. I think people walk differently down the street when they’re listening to Natasha Bedingfield compared to when they’re listening to YG. It affects everything, down to your movement. So my playlist is pretty diverse depending on the scene.

You were surrounded by some big names on set. What was the dynamic like when filming?

I had the best time filming. When I had an off day I’d get bored – I wanted to go back to work, because the whole cast and crew were great. There’s a lot of downtime when you’re filming: on a 10-hour day you might only be on set for three hours, waiting for set-ups. But when you get to hang out with people you love working with, it makes the day super fun.

Any standout moments from filming?

I pride myself on being pretty decent at driving, or anything with a motor or wheels. But I think I popped four sets of tyres this season. My excuse is that I wasn’t used to driving on the opposite side of the road – and you guys have the sharpest kerbs of all time, which I wasn’t aware of. So I popped quite a few tyres on the side of the kerb. It was painful for me, but funny for everyone else.

Did you have a favourite filming location?

Tower Bridge, because we filmed on the bridge itself. I’m from the States, and I lived in London the whole time we were filming the past two seasons – close to a year in total – and I never did any of the tourist things. I never saw Big Ben or Buckingham Palace. Then I got to stand on Tower Bridge and I was like, ‘This is unreal.’

It was funny, though, because they couldn’t close the bridge, so people would just come up and ask, ‘Are you filming Downton Abbey?’ One woman, a tourist from China, came over in the middle of a scene, brought out an iPad and had me FaceTiming her family back home. It was super fun.

Do you have a favourite line from the new series?

Guy [Ritchie] wasn’t a big fan of me swearing – he didn’t like the way it sounded. There are swear words British people say that Americans don’t, and with an American accent it can come out aggressive when it’s supposed to be endearing, or vice versa. So for the first couple of episodes I don’t think I was allowed to swear, and then it became more prevalent.

But I got to quote Raymond Carver, who’s one of my favourite writers, which I thought was pretty cool: ‘People don’t know what they’re talking about when they talk about love. They don’t know love. They just know the absence of it.’

Moving away from MobLand – what has been your favourite project to date?

MobLand and 1883, because of the people I got to work with and the locations. On MobLand we had something like 400 crew members, and all of them were amazing, from sound to the art department. Our costume designer Rebecca Hale was unreal. It was 400 friends in London, when I didn’t know anyone there when I started. Plus, I love the show – even if I wasn’t in it, I’d be a big fan.

1883 was unreal because it was during Covid and we all lived together. I got to live with Sam Elliott, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, and we became super close. We still message each other now.

Do you have any other roles in the pipeline?

I just finished filming an Austrian-Italian film called Sentimental Fail Club with Louis Hofmann from Dark. It’s mostly in German, though my part is obviously in English. We shot it this whole summer. What’s next I can’t really talk about yet. But there’s a film I’d love to do called Waffle House Index – I haven’t auditioned for it, but I read the script and it’s unreal. That would be a dream.

Who has been your favourite actor to work with?

Tom Hardy, for sure. We get along really well, and I love the guy. Working with him is awesome because it’s almost like watching live theatre. When he’s in a scene you’re thinking, ‘I had no idea he was going to play it that way,’ and it’s so good. Sam Elliott is up there too. I had him record my voicemail for a long time, because he has the voice of God – this deep, Southern voice saying, ‘You’ve called Alex’s phone, leave a message.’

Which co-star have you learnt the most from?

I really enjoyed watching Betty Gilpin in American Primeval. I’d go in on my off days just to watch her, and I’m still a massive fan. And Sam Elliott, for the way he treated everyone. There’s a reason some actors have longevity: one, it’s your talent and that you show up to work; two, people want you around because you’re a good person. Sam is insanely talented, but he’s also the nicest guy I’ve ever met.

Is there an actor, writer or director you’d love to work with?

So many. I want to work this director called Lewis Paxton. There’s also Denis Villeneuve, Paul Thomas Anderson – and working more with Guy Ritchie, Peter Berg or Taylor Sheridan would be amazing. I respect the people I’ve worked with so much that if their name is attached to something, I want to watch it, and I’d always want to be part of it.

Is there a genre you’d like to do more of?

I haven’t done a comedy, and I really want to. A superhero film, something like X-Men, would be fun too, or a spy thriller. I love Slow Horses and all the Bond films – being a villain in one of those would be awesome.

How do you live a balanced life?

If I want to go for something, I have no balance: I’ll give it 100 percent and not really take a break. But when I am on a break, I won’t do anything. I don’t go out; I don’t go to bars. I hang out with my kids at home, take them to the beach and chill out. So I guess I find the balance in both extremes.

How can we all live a little better?

I think everyone needs to give a few more hugs, and receive a few more hugs. Over the past five years or so it feels like everyone has become more isolated, lonely and divided. Hugging your friends and family more often, or just when you’re introduced to someone, makes life a little better and makes everyone feel more connected.

Anything else fun in the pipeline, personally?

When I have vacation time, I really want to go to Japan or Korea with my family and my kids.

What Alex Is Loving Right Now

I’m currently watching…

MobLand – I didn’t watch the teasers because I wanted to watch it week by week with everyone else. And Slow Horses; I’m on the new season and I love that show. Widow’s Bay is unreal – one of the best shows on TV. For films, I just saw La Bola Negra, which was so good. And I’ll throw in some trash reality, like Love Island.

I’m currently reading…

A book my friend wrote that I said I’d read a year ago. He’s Regis Prograis, a world champion boxer, and it’s about his life – including going through Hurricane Harvey. So I’m reading his life story, even if I’m a year late.

The last thing I watched (and loved) was…

La Bola Negra and Slow Horses. I watched both this week. So good.

What I’m most looking forward to seeing…

Resident Evil. I haven’t seen it yet.

Favourite film of all time…

Pulp Fiction, The Departed – and my third answer would be Friday Night Lights, the film.

Favourite song of all time…

‘I’ll Call U Back’ by Erykah Badu.

Band/singer I always have on repeat…

Gabriel Jacoby. I think he’s from Florida. There’s a jazz element to it – almost like D’Angelo. It’s R&B, but the beats are really smooth and the voice is super cool. Almost an alternative version of R&B.

My ultimate cultural recommendation…

Wherever you’re visiting – a different state, country, city or town – go to the bingo hall. Every city in every country has them, and there are zero tourists. It’s usually 80-year-old grandmas and grandpas at 2am; you can have a beer and play bingo with the locals. I do it everywhere I go. Last time we were filming in Chioggia, Italy, I went to a bingo hall, and afterwards an 83-year-old woman made meatballs and pasta for me and my friend at her house. You meet the locals, you have fun, it’s not an expensive night – and you get to learn the numbers in that language.

Cultural guilty pleasure…

Competition shows – I just watched a really long one on Netflix. And Pokémon Go, which I recently got into because of Tom Hardy. Neither of us played it back in the day, but we’ve started now and become pretty obsessed.

Alex Fine stars as Donny in MobLand series two. New episodes drop each Friday on Paramount+.