Check out our interview with “Snatch” star Lucien Laviscount!
This drama, starring Rupert Grint, is loosely based on the popular movie of the same name — and is inspired by a real-life heist in London. When a group of hustlers in their 20s discover stolen gold bullion, they are thrust into the high-stakes world of organized crime. The hustlers must work fast to navigate the dangerous waters of London’s underworld, which proves to be full of rogue cops, local villains, international mobsters and more.
Can you just give us a brief little statement about what the series is about and who your character is specifically in the show?
Lucien: Series break down is three characters. Your unlikely gangsters that get roped into heists and something that is way out of their league and then fumbling through their ups and downs. Trying to shift the goal, trying to make their own way in life. Trying to make some money at the same time. How I fit into it, I play Billy ‘Fuckin’ Ayers. He’s all about his friends and all about getting into trouble, really. He just loves getting into trouble. He’s not shy about getting a slap.
I watched the pilot and I saw that Billy very quickly gets angry in the fight that he’s in. Is that sort of like passion, something that’s very central to your character? I
Lucien: Passion, I like that, I like that. I like the word passion. He’s very passionate. Extremely passionate. When it comes down to his friends, I think he’s ready to go balls to the wall to fight for them, anything that’s necessary to keep them safe. He’s about his friendships and his family that he’s got, that’s who they are. They’ll do anything for him. He does like to have a rumble and it does happen quite a lot throughout the series.
How does it feel to be in this ensemble cast? Because I know that you were saying, it’s these three guys who are very much like a family. How much like a family are you now with the co-stars? What was it like to work so closely with them?
Lucien: It was amazing. I’ve known Luke Pasqualino … I’ve known him for about eight years. He’s been one of my good friends for a long time. Being in the ring with him really was awesome. Rupert is just one of a kind man. He’s probably one of the loveliest cat I’ve come across. He’s been through so much and seen so much and he’s so humbled by everything and everyone and he comes to work and works his socks off and we have a good time at the same time. So I can’t really complain about anything. They really are my boys, my brothers, my Snatch family for sure.
So I know that the series is very loosely based off a film by the same name, back in 2000. I don’t know if you’ve seen the movie, but if you have, how much do you think that the series kind of follows that blueprint and how much it kind of differs from what the movie was?
Lucien: I have watched the movie. I am a massive, massive fan of the movie. Really, I think that it was something so special for its time. We’re doing something over ten episodes, so ten hours. It’s kind of different, you get to meet and greet all the characters, you can follow our journey. We’re starting off in the game. We’re young cats in the game. We’re not Jason Statham just yet anyway. You find our early encounters we’re big and loud, we’re doing big jobs … It’s growing in hopes throughout the season and throughout the series of the show, people will grow with us and we’ll grow as well as characters and friendships and everything will grow.
Since it’s not exactly like a full on reboot as we’re seeing a lot of reboots these days. How much better do you think it is to do kind of like what your series is doing which is more of a tribute piece to a great film, rather than doing kind of these blander reboots that you see all the time in Hollywood?
Lucien: I think if you do it well, you do it well. No one can that away from them, but I think what we’ve got … like you said, we’re just taking the essence of what Snatch was and the vibe and made it completely our own. There are tributes here and there, but it’s definitely its own show.
I know that you’ve done the FOX’s Scream Queens. I know that you’ve also done Bye Bye Man, the horror movie. What’s it like to go from those and then jump onto a streaming service television series? Is there any kind of difference for preparing for that role or approaching it in any way?
Lucien: No, I think as long as the material’s good, I’m working with some wicked people and some great scripts. Just because it’s a streaming service, it doesn’t really frighten me or scare me in any sort of way. I think more than anything, I think it’s just different and I think that’s the way the world is going now, if you know what I mean? It’s changed massively, dramatically in the past ten years. I think to fall behind the times would be to not do something like that, does that make sense? Gotta roll with the punches as Billy ‘Fuckin’ Ayers would say.
And speaking of, since your character’s a boxer, is that something you had to train in a lot for this role or is it something that you were already kind of familiar with?
Lucien: I’ve been kick boxing since I was a kid, but it’s very different to get into the boxing world. I’ll be honest with you, we had like three hours of rehearsal the day before we started shooting. To get the fighting scenes like that. It was a pretty brutal three hours, I did take a few slaps and I think makeup got called in more times than they should have to come to cover up a few black eyes that shouldn’t have been there, but it was just a great experience. I just had a great time doing it. It was so much fun. You know what I mean? So all that aside … I didn’t really think of it as a challenge. I think it was just working. Let’s get going, let’s do it. One of them kind of things.
