Actor Adam Basil from Aldeburgh speaks on Guy Ritchie’s new Netflix series The Gentlemen and transformation from The Bloater in The Last of Us
An actor from Suffolk has spoken on his role as a boxer in Guy Ritchie’s new Netflix series.
Adam Basil, from Aldeburgh, plays a character called The Butcher in the upcoming series that is an adaptation of the 2019 movie The Gentlemen, which featured Hollywood stars Matthew McConaughey, Colin Farrell, Charlie Hunnam and Hugh Grant.
The show recently wrapped filming and will feature a total of eight 60-minute-long episodes and Adam feels absolutely delighted that he’s been able to play a part in it.
He said: “I really liked the movie that came out a few years ago, especially the performance of Hugh Grant, plus the action was really great and so this series picks up from where the film left off and it looks really great.
“Now I’m very excited to see how it all comes together, but judging by the images that I’ve seen already I can see it’s definitely going to be a hit.”
“My favourite thing about being involved in this was working with Guy Ritchie. He’s such a legend and has made some of the greatest films out there like Snatch as well as Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.
“I also managed to work with some fantastic actors including the great Vinnie Jones, who really lives up to his big personality.”
Joining Vinnie Jones in The Gentlemen series are the likes of Theo James, Kaya Scodelario, Giancarlo Esposito and many more.
Adam was Tom Hardy's stunt double in Venom: Let There Be Carnage, and has worked on Game of Thrones, Avengers: Age of Ultron, the latest James Bond film No Time to Die and Beauty and the Beast.
However, his recent stint as The Bloater in HBO’s highly acclaimed The Last of Us show, saw an unexpected spike in interest online in the 33-year-old.
The Suffolk actor wore a type of prosthetic bodysuit after Barrie Gower reached out to him, who is the creator behind the creatures and prosthetics of Game of Thrones and Stranger Things.
Adam has formerly competed in and won kickboxing tournaments and thanks to his previous experiences in fight scenes in films as well, it helped him to secure the role as The Butcher after the show’s casting director and stunt coordinator reached out to him.
He is now looking forward to audiences seeing him in his new role and explained how it differed for him from playing The Bloater.
“Firstly, The Butcher is a mean heavyweight boxer who doesn’t mind cheating,” he said.
“In The Last of Us, The Bloater was me but under 60kg of foam latex whereas here The Butcher is all me, but performance-wise we both used a lot of energy and for The Gentlemen we shot one of the fights for three days.
“I had to really sharpen up my boxing skills for this role though, I’d had a few injuries just before shooting so it was very hard to push through.”
In 2011, Adam had to move away from Aldeburgh to London in 2011 to embark on his stunt career, but despite his regular travels abroad, he still returns to Aldeburgh often.
His brother still lives in his hometown and he also has a granny in Beccles and his mum lives in Ely.
Adam has worked on two films that will be coming out at some point in the foreseeable future - The Bee Keeper starring Jason Statham and Back in Action starring Cameron Diaz.
He is also set to appear as an orc in season two of The Rings of Power which will be released in 2024 on Amazon Prime.