Andrew Koji on Gangs of London fight scenes with Sope Dirisu Report by Mccallumj. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00It helps my mind, that's why I do it.
00:02Because it's quite a groundbreaking show for British TV, isn't it?
00:05To do this and kick Chopper Dyrus in the nuts.
00:09Andrew, how you doing, mate?
00:11Hello, hello.
00:12I tell you what, I was a big fan of, recently, Black Doves.
00:16Black Doves, ah.
00:16Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:18And then it made me laugh when I saw this, because I was like,
00:22I wonder how he feels after doing something where you get laid out in the first episode.
00:26Is it nice to be back to doing more familiar territory,
00:28where you're a bit of a badass?
00:30Get a bit more, yeah, yeah.
00:32Yeah, yeah.
00:33Well, yeah, they didn't kill me off in the first episode.
00:35Yeah, yeah.
00:37It's always a pleasure not to be killed off straight away, yeah.
00:40And, like, with your sort of background as well,
00:43I mean, I wonder what your take on this is,
00:46because we don't get so many, like, proper action stars anymore.
00:50Like, people who come from, like, a martial arts background and stuff like that.
00:54Jean-Claude Van Damme and stuff, which I grew up with.
00:56Yeah.
00:57Nowadays, it's usually just, oh, this actor does his own stunts,
01:00but he's not really, like, from, like, a physical background.
01:03CGI, yeah.
01:04Do you enjoy being able to use all your skills on camera,
01:07or is it nice when you do something like Doves,
01:09where you're kind of like, I'm just here to be a person, a normal person?
01:13Yeah, you know, it's a bit of both.
01:14I mean, I love what I do.
01:16I love to be working.
01:17I love that it's a privilege, really, to get to train,
01:21and I think martial arts, for me, has become, because of Warrior,
01:25this show has become a very important aspect of my life.
01:27I think it helps my mind.
01:30That's why I do it.
01:31And aside from learning all these cool techniques
01:33and getting to train with some amazing people,
01:36yeah, I mean, I love doing that while I'm young and youngish,
01:40to be able to do this and kick Chopper Dyrus in the nuts
01:46and have an amazing fight scene with him for three,
01:49fight with him for three, four days.
01:50I think I'd love to, yeah, do other things,
01:52but I'm grateful to be working as an actor, really.
01:56We're around the same age, mate, so, yeah, you're young.
01:58You're still young.
01:58We're both still young.
01:59Are we? Are we really?
02:00Because I'm starting to feel it.
02:01I've got great skin.
02:02Don't worry about it, but I am, man.
02:03I'm up there.
02:04I'm up there.
02:06Let's talk about joining the show.
02:07As someone with kind of a martial arts background,
02:10you would be perhaps more aware than most of the kind of provenance
02:13of this show, initially starting off as like a Gareth Evans project
02:18and the Raid, and the Raid 2,
02:20which is like one of the best kind of underground sort of like...
02:24Havoc coming out soon, but we're not promoting that.
02:26We're promoting Gangs of London.
02:27Yeah, Gangs of New York.
02:28Gangs of New York, wow.
02:30Yeah, yeah, 20 years ago.
02:31Gangs of London.
02:32Not having a lot of sleep.
02:34So, like, going into a show like this,
02:37was that an extra kind of frisson of excitement for you
02:41to be able to bring some of those skill sets on the physical side
02:45because it's so important and ingrained into this show?
02:49Yeah, I mean, it's quite a groundbreaking show for British TV,
02:54isn't it?
02:54And especially season one with Gareth Evans doing that.
02:57I think the mixture of the family drama,
03:00plus the Raid-esque style fight scenes,
03:04fused together in the London setting,
03:07plus to be able to play a character like Zeke.
03:13Yeah, I think for me, yeah,
03:16and at the time, you know, growing up 15,
03:1917, 18 years ago when I first started this journey,
03:23there wasn't any characters like that being played by someone
03:25of my ethnicity on TV.
03:27So, to be able to do that is an honor, a privilege.
03:31Yeah, and to get to play in the world with this, you know,
03:34talented cast and to be able to utilize these skills
03:39to do, you know, big fight scene with Choppe.
03:42Yeah, very much.
03:44Yeah, very much happy to be part of it.
03:46What kind of stuff did you grow up on then?
03:48What kind of, like, movies and shows are the things
03:51that inspired you to get involved in this game?
03:54Because when I look at you now,
03:56and I think of those kind of, like, old-school,
03:58kind of early 90s actors.
03:59I think of, like, Jean-Claude Van Damme.
04:00I think of, like, Universal Soldier and those kind of movies
04:02that are just, like, the best thing in the world
04:04and we don't really see many anymore
04:06unless it's, like, Jason Statham.
04:07Yeah, yeah.
04:08Do you think there's, like, a corner of this market
04:10that needs to be explored a little bit more nowadays,
04:13a bit more like your Warrior stuff?
04:14I think, like our director Hong Sung, Korean director,
04:19being brought on to kind of inject this new style
04:24and feeling, he's bringing a lot of his,
04:26he brought a lot of his sensibilities
04:27and style into this season three.
04:32I think Korean cinema is the way they handle the action,
04:38which is smart and character-driven
04:40and interesting with their style and stories.
04:44Plus, they have these action scenes.
04:45I think that's kind of untapped.
04:47A lot of our action martial arts cinema
04:48is, like, B-movie stuff or whatever.
04:51I definitely think there's room and scope to explore more,
04:54but, you know, it requires a lot of smarts
04:57and a lot of good writing and a lot of thing,
04:58and I think, hopefully, a show like Gangs of London
05:00and whatever else it might inspire
05:03that will create more room for British cinema
05:06to do that, I think, you know?