By Luaine Lee
Tribune News Service
Rupert Grint, who played Ron Weasley, Harry Potter’s best pal in the “Harry Potter” films, is all grown up. And he’s walking on the wild side as the hoodlum Charlie in Crackle’s new series, “Snatch.”
“It is a much more adult project,” says Grint, 28. “It’s just kind of a natural progression, I think, as I’ve gotten older and moved past, (it’s) more kind of grown-up and more kind of edgy. I would still say it’s got kind of family elements to the show.”
“Snatch” is an updated and rakish take on the movie of the same name. It’s based on a real-life gold bullion heist by a group of young hooligans who find themselves in deep water when they get involved with organized crime.
Though these characters are constantly on the con, deep down they’re just good lads gone bad, says Grint. “What it is with these characters, they’re all kind of with Charlie, they’re all trying to escape something, particularly from their home life. They come from quite complicated home foundations. With Charlie, he has these kind of bohemian, hippie parents that have these weird sex parties and grow weed. So he’s always trying to escape that …
“And, obviously, when we get the gold, it kind of changes things. We’re just small-time scoundrels and find ourselves in some really deep, deep trouble that could have some lethal consequences. And it’s interesting how the characters kind of deal with it in their different ways,” he says.
It sounds like gritty neo-realism, but executive producer Alex De Rakoff says that’s way off-target.
“You look at ‘Snatch,’ the original film, you have a lot of characters that are much larger-than-life and of all nationalities, and I want to take that and infuse our show with that,” he says.
“I think what is really interesting, is we take all these irreverent, interesting kind of diverse and dynamic characters, and there’s a lot of hustles and a lot of scams, a lot of action and a lot of energy, but you get to know them and you get to see them in relationships and with each other and what it’s like to be young and figure s— out as you go.
“And I feel that’s something that separates the show from other stuff that’s on television right now … So realism certainly wasn’t the top of my agenda.”
The 10-part series premiering Thursday also features Ed Westwick (“Gossip Girl,” “Wicked City”) as a Miami-born Cuban. The 29-year-old who hails from Hertfordshire, England, says he had to scramble to manage the dialect.
“I spent a fair bit of time kind of looking for different people who I was based on. I settled on Pitbull, the rapper. I don’t know if I actually end up sounding like him, but it felt like a good fit …” he says.
Made in England with a mostly British cast and crew, the series sports a different vibe than the movie, says De Rakoff. If it had been made in America, he says the characters would be much more heavily armed.
“Our guys don’t really use guns at all. It’s part of the charm of the show. It has a very ‘English’ spirit. And the way they approach the hustles and the heist is pretty English, and the weapons of choice such as knuckle-dusters and mace I feel were quite East London. So it definitely has an English spirit to it.”
Dougray Scott plays Charlie’s incorrigible father who keeps dispensing terrible advice to his son from prison. Even playing a reprehensible punk like this can be inspiring, says Scott.
“However long you’re playing a character — of course one always has to come back to reality because we have stuff in life we have to deal with on a daily basis — but those moments, those hours on set, you can just escape into someone else’s world,” he says.
“Sometimes it’s not pretty. It’s not always pretty, the places you have to go to bring a character to life and get the truth out of a situation. That’s what you do. But that’s part of the appeal as well.”
Cumberbatch cast as playboy
If you’ve been wondering how Benedict Cumberbatch could surpass his performance as the quirky Sherlock Holmes, you’ll have the chance to see when he arrives on Showtime as the aristocratic playboy Patrick Melrose in a series based on the novels by Edward St. Aubyn.
Adapted by David Nicholls, “Melrose,” will meander into Southern France of the ’60s, New York of the ’80s and Britain in the early 2000s. Since both of Cumberbatch’s parents are actors, they tried to discourage him from entering the family business. “They wanted me to have more affluence, more flexibility, and be able to plan my life around my children, my family,” he recalls.
“They felt at times, I think, that because of me and because of being family they did have to make certain decisions they wouldn’t have had to make. They were actors. But it all worked out very nicely. For a long time I kinda thought they were right, and I looked into being a criminal barrister for a long time, sort of a romantic mold of ‘Rumpole of the Bailey.’ … What a silly thing to do for a living, but it’s going well and I’m loving it.”
Adam Carolla builds stuff
Adam Carolla will bring his outlandish sense of humor to Spike on Tuesday with “Adam Corolla and Friends Build Stuff Live,” in which he actually uses his handyman skills to make funny and help out his celebrity friends with their DIY projects. Jimmy Kimmel will guest on the premiere. One of the hilarious segments involves Carolla accosting unsuspecting people who are shopping in the hardware store.
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