For fans of period pieces and crime stories, MGM+ has a new series just for you with Westies. The series follows Tom Brittney's Jimmy and JK Simmons' Eamon Sweeney, two members of the crime gang the Westies, as they contend with the Italian mafia in the 1980s while working to profit handsomely from the construction of the Javits Center in New York City.
The Direct sat down with Westies stars Titus Welliver (Glenn Keenan) and Jessica Frances Dukes (Birdie Polk), alongside co-creators Chris Brancato and Michael Panes, to discuss how the series will offer a unique spin on the criminal underbelly of NYC in the 1980s.
For coverage on more MGM+ shows, be sure to check out The Direct's interviews for Robin Hood.
How Westies Tells a Different Crime Family Story
Westies' Creators Wanted to "Lean Into the Chaos."
- The Direct: "We've seen a lot of stories about the New York underbelly, and especially the gangs that run their territory within it. When approaching this show, for you guys, how did you want to make sure that it put its own unique stamp on this kind of story?"
Michael Panes: I think we say that the Italians, which we know a lot about, were sort of organized crime, but the Westies, which was a group we know very little about, they were disorganized crime, and one way to make the show fresh for us is that we want to lean into the chaos, the unpredictability, the fun, this sort of underdog immigrant group striving for their idea of the American dream with the Irish.
Chris Brancato: And we make the Italian—the Italians are part of the show, but they're sort of backdrop, and they're frenemies with the Irish... We also see a young John Gotti who hasn't yet ascended to the height of the Gambino crime family, he's making his way up the ladder, and so we felt like we were showing angles on these different criminal groups, the Westies, who you haven't seen much before, and the Italians, who you have, but you just haven't seen this iteration of the Italians, and then, of course, you have the Gambino task force, which is led by the actor Jessica Francis Dukes, so you have a law enforcement presence as well.
Titus Welliver & Jessica Frances Dukes Discuss Their Westies Detectives
One Has a Flawless Moral Compass, and the Other a Comprimised One.
- The Direct: "Titus, you are obviously very well known for your role as Bosch, a now very famous detective. In this, you're a very different detective with Glenn Keenan. Can you talk a little bit about how those two really differ from each other, and if there are any particular things you brought to this role from your time as Bosch?"
Titus Welliver: Well, they're the polar opposite, right? Harry Bosch had this sort of flawless moral compass, whereas Glenn Keenan has clearly been magnetized and is just spinning in a circle. So I felt like that it's an enormous departure from Bosch, and not, you know, this concentrated effort to try to distance myself from Harry [Bosch]. But I thought, you know, when I read this, I went, "This is a... it's a challenge, but he's every bit as deeply nuanced as Bosch, just a little bit on the other side of the poll.
- The Direct: "Jessica, you are Birdie Polk, another detective, one who is kind of firmly centered on the right side of the law. Can you talk a little bit about the uphill battle that your character is facing throughout the entirety of this show?"
Jessica Frances Dukes: You know, the uphill battle is especially in all the research I was doing, was getting people to talk, getting people to, you know, say what they saw, what they know, and all of that. But it's such a tight-knit community that she knows she has to go inside to get the info, and I think she feels like she has the key in Keenan, and you know it's just a matter of is Keenan going to be the, you know, cop that she knows he can be due to his past, due to all the research she's done on him...
Welliver: She is on the right side of the law, but the way in which she operates is, she's working around and so knowing that the Westies are ultimately an impenetrable group, she leverages information that she has about Keenan, and I think that that dynamic in the relationship is very interesting, because he knows what she's doing, and he is, at best, a reluctant participant. He just has no choice, but I think, because they're both from the street, they speak, you know the same language, and it's just about how they navigate each other, which makes for some really interesting stuff for Jessica and I to play.
The full interviews are available below:
