Pierce Brosnan and Helen Mirren begin their MobLand workdays sharing a makeup trailer, exchanging polite greetings and waking up over cups of tea before stepping into the considerably less civilized marriage of Conrad and Maeve Harrigan.
“Polite, very nice,” Mirren told PEOPLE while demonstrating their morning exchange: “Morning, Piers. How are you this morning, darling? I’m fine.” Brosnan added that they are usually still waking up with their tea.
Mirren then demonstrated what happens after they leave the trailer by pretending to fire a gun wildly. Brosnan laughed and supplied the summary: “It’s nuts.” The actors return in Season 2 as the married heads of the Harrigan crime family, whose conversations can move from domestic bickering to violence with very little warning.
Brosnan and Mirren have spent much of the past three years working together across both seasons of MobLand and Netflix’s The Thursday Murder Club, according to TV Insider.
Late Season 2 Scripts Had Them ‘Shooting From the Hip’
“They did come in late, which kind of puts you on edge, somewhat, and it really means you have to shoot from the hip,” Brosnan said of the Season 2 scripts. “You have to make quick decisions.”
Having already established Conrad and Maeve during the first season gave both actors something solid to work from. Mirren said the cast initially had little idea what MobLand would become, but the show’s particular tone developed as they worked and became even more pronounced when they returned.
Brosnan described the extended experience of playing Conrad as a “long fever dream,” recalling days when he would leave the set asking himself, “What did I just do?!” Mirren called the second season “an adventure into the unknown” and said the unpredictability was exciting.
Mirren Says the Cast Gives Her Freedom to ‘Be Ridiculous’ and Make Mistakes
Mirren told PEOPLE that she feels safe working with Brosnan, Tom Hardy and the rest of the ensemble, giving her room to experiment without treating every choice as something that has to work immediately.
She compared the company to a theater troupe and said that atmosphere creates “the freedom to invent, to be ridiculous, to make mistakes” on set. “You can only do that when you’re working with people who are giving, generous, and kind of professional and inventive,” she said.
Brosnan acknowledged that film sets can sometimes feel lonely despite the number of people involved in a production. Mirren described the MobLand cast as a genuine ensemble, while Brosnan has similarly referred to the group as a family.
Paramount+ Renewed ‘MobLand’ for Season 3 Before Season 2 Premiered
Paramount+ renewed MobLand for a third season on Sept. 3, two weeks before Season 2 premiered. Tom Hardy will return as Harry Da Souza, with Brosnan and Mirren back as Conrad and Maeve.
The 10-episode second season premiered Sept. 18 and releases new episodes on Fridays. Episode 3, “Bonzo Goes to Bitburg,” arrived Oct. 2, with the finale scheduled for Nov. 20.