More than five years after Peaky Blinders, Joe Cole cannot escape it.
Case in point: when the time came to film his surprise reappearance in Season 2 of Sky’s Gangs of London. While most of the cast and crew were aware of his return to set, a couple of the show’s newbies were less clued up.
“They had already been two months into shooting and I was walking up the stairs,” he remembers.
“A few of the crew recognised me from Peaky Blinders – “That’s the guy from Peaky Blinders!” - and had no idea that I was actually in this show. I just chose not to correct them on it. They didn’t even realise that I [was] in this show and about to film…”
For the uninitiated, Cole is referring to his character Sean Wallace, who reappeared in the show’s second episode after being dramatically shot by á¹¢á»pẹ Dìrísù’s Elliot in the season one finale.
Arguably one of the first season’s main characters, his sudden death was a shock to the Gangs of London’s legions of fans, but according to Cole, it was always part of the plan.
“When I signed on, I signed on for a one season agreement. Sean was going to cause as much carnage as possible in London, and wrong as many people as he could, and then get his comeuppance at the end,” he says.
As the team progressed through shooting, however, the directing team started to re-evaluate, resulting in the scene – much speculated over by Redditors – where Sean is shot in the cheek, rather than anywhere explicitly fatal.
“By the end of the show, I think the idea was that we shoot him and if they can’t renegotiate the deal with me that they kill me and if we can negotiate the deal, then we go again,” Cole says.
“For me it was I felt there was unfinished business. I said to the guys, ‘If there’s growth in the character, there’s an opportunity to play a new version of Sean, a Sean that’s more in control and more ruthless and more, he sort of earns his place, as it were, in the gangland world, well, then I’m all for it.”
Earns his place is one way to put it: in episodes two and three, we see how Sean is effectively kidnapped, tortured, becomes a hitman-for-hire and then brutally kills his father’s ex-girlfriend (and mother of his half-sister) Floriana when she attempts to interfere in his plans.
It’s quite the resumé – and with his rather angelic looks, Cole is perhaps not the person who springs to mind alongside thoughts of brutal protagonists and bloody fight scenes.
However, that’s been his bread and butter almost since he left university. Born in London, Cole started out as a carpet salesman, before going back to high school and redoing his A-levels alongside younger brother Finn (who appeared alongside him in Peaky Blinders).
After completing his education at the National Youth Theatre, his breakthrough role was arguably as troubled teen Luke in Skins – something he looks back fondly on.
“Skins was amazing, man. I used to watch Skins when I was in college. I used to watch it thinking, ‘I should be in that show,’” he says. Well, he did – and from there, he went onto play boxer Billy Moore in the brutal prison drama A Prayer Before Dawn, Frank in the award-winning Black Mirror episode Hang the DJ and of course, John Shelby in Peaky Blinders.
These days, Cole’s appearance in two of the biggest gangster shows in recent memory means that he’s likely to be recognised when he walks down the street these days, though he’s adamant that the most attention comes when he’s abroad.
“People are just so- I think they’re quite shocked to see me in their hometown,” he says, citing a recent trip to Costa Rica where he was recognised both by eighteen-year-old bar staff and, as he says, “a middle-aged Costa Rican woman who’s serving food… my friends were just like, ‘Who’s watching your shows?!’”
However, he’s adamant that his resulting career in gangster films is not what he planned – indeed, he says he has “no idea why” his career has gone off in that direction.
“I don’t know. I mean, they’re so far away from who I am, personally,” he says. “I understand physicality. I can do fighting and I’m relatively fit and physical. And if you can do both, and you can get cast in these roles. But yeah, it’s certainly not been planned.”
His next role is a swerve from gangster to something equally dark: upcoming Disney+ TV series A Small Light, where he plays Jan Gies, one of the people who hid Anne Frank’s family (as well as others) from the Nazis during the Second World War.
Despite neatly changing the conversation from any parallels with today’s troubles (though he does call the UK government a “shitshow”), Cole is quick to agree with my suggestion of acting serving as a form of activism in its own right.
“If you’re fortunate enough as an actor to be able to be involved in projects like this, then it is a real blessing and a real joy,” he says.
“You know, it’s another way of getting an important voice out there on a show that’s going to be on Disney+ for a hundred million people to watch, so yeah: it’s important to tell these stories.”
With Gangs of London Season 2 in full swing, it seems Cole’s name will be on everyone’s lips again, even if it is for another return to the role of mafioso.
Despite that, he’s philosophical about where he’s ended up.
“When I started [acting], I was a 19, 20-year-old lad. I’d just retaken my A levels; I was in my brother’s classes, in sixth form,” he says.
“If someone could turn around and go, ‘Joe, okay, in 10 years’ time, 12 years’ time, you’re gonna be in the two most successful gangster shows ever to come out of the UK?’ I’d probably say, ‘I’ll take that.’”
