“In terms of choreography, I can’t pretend I learned things in just a couple of hours,” Dìrísù explains. “For that final, long fight, we rehearsed it separately and then together over quite a long period of time in and among shooting. It was quite complicated. It was so dependent on the environment too, so there were so many things we had to pretend ‘then this happens’ when we were in the rehearsal room. There were a couple of controlled but unknown factors that you couldn’t litigate for before you were in the space.”Fuelling The FightYou might think that such a controlled production would require its lead actors to load up on chicken, broccoli and rice but that wasn’t the case. As per the instruction that Dìrísù should avoid getting washboard abs, production on Gangs of London seems to have taken a more realistic and balanced approach to its actors. Notably, Dìrísù was free to eat as he pleased. After all, he did need the energy.“I wasn’t on a special diet,” he says. “I did start snacking during the day to keep it going. Some nuts or a protein bar. It wasn’t an instruction, it was just about listening to your body. ‘I’m kinda hungry’. OK, ‘What does my body need?’ and you give it the fuel. But there was nothing overly-considered about it.”Undercover OperationsSo, was all of this difficult to detach from? Does filming such a dark and murky show about your home city follow you home at night? For Dìrísù, not so much. “I’m shooting in London and going home to my flat every day, and my partner and friends. I can’t keep holding on to the fact I might have done a really intense fight sequence today,” he says. “It has to be like ‘work’s done, back to the rest of life’. That is my decompression.”Should Dìrísù’s character make it out of season two alive, he’s looking forward to putting his body on the line once again for a potential season three. After all, in what over job do you get to spend all day grappling with Lithuanian strongmen? “I really enjoy the physical aspect of the character, so it’s always a pleasure to go to work,” he says. “No matter how difficult and stressful that day might be, I really enjoy it. It’s never something I have to unwind from. I might need a cold shower and some magnesium to help my body recover, but that’s it.”Gangs of London will be available on Sky Atlantic and streaming service NOW with an Entertainment Membership for just £9.99.