Beloved British filmmaker Guy Ritchie, best known for cult action hits like “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” and “Snatch,” has long been ignored by the Oscars. But the Emmys have finally given him his flowers with a best comedy directing nod for “The Gentlemen,” starring Theo James, Kaya Scodelario, and Daniel Ings. The Netflix series is a spinoff of Ritchie’s 2019 film of the same name; it follows Eddie Horniman (James), a military vet who unknowingly inherits a cannabis empire—and all the colorful people who come with it.
The show’s top-drawer cast, assembled by Dan Hubbard and Rory Okey, is a huge factor in its success. Over the past few years, the former has collaborated with Ritchie on several projects, including “Wrath of Man,” “The Covenant,” and “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.” Here, Hubbard explains how he found the right performers to fill out “The Gentlemen” and discusses whether the team knew what a hit the show would become.
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“The Gentlemen” isn’t tethered to the film it’s based on. Was it always Ritchie’s intention for the show to be its own little island?
There was talk of maybe going back to some previous characters from the movie—not mentioning any names, because I don’t want to get into trouble. But it was one of the big names, and that didn’t work out. But by then, the creative impetus of the show had found its legs with completely different characters and completely different settings. And then all these fantastic characters came about, hence making each episode a kind of feature film. And the great thing about working with Guy, as a casting director, is that so many people have a desire to work with him because of his track record.
Kaya Scodelario on “The Gentlemen” Credit: Christopher Rafael/Netflix
James, Scodelario, and Ings are all incredibly well-suited to their roles. What was the process for casting them like?
Theo had to audition like everybody else, but his work on “The White Lotus” helped enormously in terms of convincing us creatively that he was the best choice to play Eddie. And his tape helped us get it over the line with so many people that were involved in the show.
Daniel is a terrifically versatile actor, and he has trained and fought hard to get where he is. He had done a show called “I Hate Suzie” where he played Billie Piper’s onscreen husband. I mean, his work in that was sensational.
I’ve been a big fan of Kaya since her days on “Skins.” My daughter and I saw her in “Crawl”; and even in a movie with tight spaces and a lot of CGI and everything, her performance was really strong and emotional. I am very keen on casting people from different backgrounds, not just people from privileged backgrounds, which comes up a lot. And when we did our research, [we discovered that] Kaya grew up very aware of this world of criminality and dark characters, and how things operate in it.
Was the team surprised by how successful the show was pretty much as soon as it dropped?
It blew our minds. It was No. 1 in 65 countries for three to six weeks. I thought that maybe some people would say, “Oh, these are the typical kind of Ritchie gangsters.” But “The Gentlemen” was such a different, unique product that came from Guy, though his comedy has always been there. I’ve never worked on anything where I’ve been emailed so much and complimented so much on my work.
This story originally appeared in the Aug. 8 issue of Backstage Magazine.