Andrew Koji on Gangs of London fight scenes with Sope Dirisu

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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?

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