- Lennie James discusses his new role as Frank Moses in Mayor of Kingstown, who fans have compared to Gus Fring in Breaking Bad
- The Bafta winner reflects on playing complex, morally ambiguous characters throughout his career, finding them engaging and challenging
- The actor raises concerns about diminishing opportunities in acting education, emphasising the value of youth theatres and drama schools
Lennie James is no stranger to playing characters whose morals are tested.
The actor kicked off the first series of Line of Duty as antagonist DCI Tony Gates, before becoming a key part of The Walking Dead universe as Rick Grimes’ ally Morgan Jones.
The 60-year-old has been in the acting business for over three decades, but his latest role – starring as gangster Frank Moses in the fourth season of Jeremy Renner’s thriller Mayor of Kingstown – could be one of his most impactful yet.
Frank, who beheads four people with a freight train in his first scene, has already been compared to Breaking Bad villain Gus Fring, who many people regard as one of the best TV villains of all time.
‘One of the things I really like about Frank Moses is how difficult he is to gauge,’ the Bafta winner tells Metro.
‘His danger is in what you can’t see, where you can’t hear what he’s saying, or can’t see what he’s doing. I like him a lot. Which seems like an odd thing to say, considering what he gets up to.’
Comparing Frank to Gus, one fan called @batherine_ wrote on X: ‘Frank Moses is the Gus Fring of #MayorOfKingstown.’
Another named @rodriQuez added: ‘Mayor of Kingstown introduced a new character in Season 4, an old-school mob boss from Detroit, Frank Moses. Anyone else getting an evil Gus Fring Los Pollos Hermanos vibe?’
Lennie insists that actors ‘have to be able to understand’ the characters they play, even if you don’t have to ‘like’ them.
‘I think it’s an assumption most people would make that you have to like the characters you’re playing in order to make the choices they’re making believable, but you don’t necessarily,’ he outlines.
‘I have to be able to justify their actions and choices, even if they’re actions or choices I wouldn’t do or make. You can think your character is an idiot, but still be committed to their idiocy.’
Throughout his career, Lennie has gravitated towards playing morally ambiguous individuals. He starred as Robert Jenkins in the US TV drama Jericho, who’s shrouded in mystery from the very start.
In 2018, he released his critically acclaimed drama Save Me, in which he starred as Nelly, a man who’s falsely accused of abducting his own 13-year-old daughter, and embarks on a harrowing mission to find her.
So why is it that Lennie is drawn to characters who endure arduous, emotional challenges?
‘They interest me, because if you’re playing those characters, it’s as important what you’re not saying as what you are saying. So you have to be fully engaged,’ he stated.
‘I get bored very easily, so I like characters that engage me. If you’re exploring the human condition, which to a certain extent it is my job to do, you want the characters who are conflicted and throw up as many questions as they do answers. But mostly it’s not being bored.’
There is certainly no boredom where Lennie’s performances are concerned. Earlier this year, his portrayal of Barrington Jedidiah Walker in BBC drama Mr Loverman earned him a Bafta for best actor.
‘I came from a household where the notion of being an actor and making a living out of it just wasn’t one of the options presented as a way of lifting yourself up,’ he shares.
‘If I was coming through now from where I came from, I think it would have been harder for me. It feels that opportunities are lessening. Youth theatres are lessening, focus on drama schools have become degree courses and, by definition, the net they cast is smaller.’
Lennie attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama as a youngster, an experience that he says was ‘really important’ to him.
‘It opened my eyes to the things I didn’t know: Strindberg, Shakespeare and Brecht. It’s the broadening of understanding that universities, drama schools and youth theatres provide,’ he recollects.
‘If you take those away, we lose voices, perspective, and the possibility of someone doing something different based on where they’re from and what they’ve experienced. I think it will be a crying shame if that area of possibility is made harder to bloom.’
While Lennie’s Mayor of Kingstown character Frank might strike fear into the hearts of audiences, a TV series that’s brought him joy as of late is Aimee Lou Wood’s Film Club on the BBC.
‘I love it, its heart is so in the right place. She’s done a fantastic job with it, and every time I finish an episode I have a smile on my face. At the moment, I quite like television that does that.’
Mayor of Kingstown streams new episodes every Monday on Paramount+.
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