Aidan Gillen has opened up about his next big role in Irish gangland drama Kin.
The eight-part series is set for global release next month, after streaming service AMC+ acquired the rights for North America, Australia, New Zealand, Iberia, Latin America and the UK.
Kin will follow the lives of a fictional Dublin family embroiled in a gangland war, and the consequences of their choices.
Speaking at the RTÉ new season launch, Aidan said: “Kin is ostensibly a crime drama, but it is a family drama, like a lot of the great crime dramas are family dramas.”
“I play this character Frank Kinsella who is the head if you like of the family or the organisation, although that’s somewhat debatable.”
“He is complicated, but also quite practical, reserved, and unpredictable. But there are a lot strong characters in this family, so it is not as cut as dry as ‘this guy is in charge and these people are going to do what he says’, it’s not like that.”
"I have to repay loyalty with loyalty".
Brand new drama Kin coming soon to @RTEOne …#RTENewSeason #RTEKinpic.twitter.com/s5JfLQ0nCy
— RTÉ (@rte) August 18, 2021
Clare Dunne, Ciarán Hinds, Sam Keeley, Emmett Scanlan, Maria Doyle Kennedy and Yasmin Seky will also star in the upcoming series.
Aiden has starred in hit shows such as Peaky Blinders, Game of Thrones and Love/Hate, and believes Kin could be a huge international success.
The Dublin native said: “There haven’t been that many Irish TV dramas that have made it big in the US: Strumpet City, of course, and Normal People. I know Love/Hate was seen in the States by executives, and all the people I spoke to did respond to it and did get it.”
Aidan admitted he thought “quite a lot” about his responsibility not to glorify gangland crime, adding: “But you can’t not show the attractive side of it, what it is that draws a 15-year-old or a 12-year-old into that life.”
“I think you have a responsibility to show it and then show how it ends. And it generally doesn’t end well. It ends in prison or death; in the grave. So I’d be quite conscious of that.”
“It is something I have thought about in the past; thought about quite a lot actually. But, I think it’s wrong to go out there and make it entertainment purely; I don’t like that.”
“It’s a crime drama set in Dublin, so there will be some scenes that are brutal and shocking. But there is nothing in there for the sake of pure sensation. It’s pretty evenly paced and not overdone at all. But, you have to be very careful about what you are glamorising.”
