Culture
Stephen Graham expected to play role in Peaky Blinders
5 years ago
The writer denied the Line Of Duty actor will play Al Capone.
Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight has said he has already devised a role in the show for Stephen Graham.
The writer said the Line Of Duty actor is the person he most wants to make a guest appearance but denied he would play gangster Al Capone.
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He told the BBCās Obsessed withā¦ Peaky Blinders podcast: āWeāre proceeding with that, but not this series. Not Al Capone, I didnāt want to go west. Once you go into Chicago gangsterā¦
āI referred to him last series, but I didnāt want to go into that.ā
āThe amount of people who have come to us wanting to be in it is quite astonishing ā and really good people. What Iāve tried to avoid before is turning it into a āspot the celebrityā, you know, because I think itās quite distracting sometimes.
āBut someone like Adrien Brody is a great actor, obviously you want to put them in it, but I think now weāre coming to the final two series, Iām going to relax and open the gates a bit because thereās some amazing people who want to be in it, and I think āWhy not?āā
Asked what kind of role he does envisage for Graham, he replied: āIāve already got it and Iām not going to tell you.ā
Knight also addressed rumours that Julia Roberts was interested in a part in the show, saying: āI donāt know where that got out, but, yeah, fingers crossed on that.ā
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Previewing the forthcoming fifth series of the show, he said: āThere is a thread and a strand to it which is incredibly topical.
āNot thanks to me, but thanks to what was happening at that time. There are so many parallels.
āItās the early ā30s and itās the first stirrings of fascism and nationalism and populism, and there are particular politicians that were happy to stir that up and make use of it and get votes from it.
āAnd Tommy has to face that and itās part of what I feel will, hopefully, eventually be a rehabilitation of him, because when he comes across that, howās he going to react? Is he going to go with it? Is he going to oppose it?ā