Lara Pulver can’t get enough of British television. Which may sound obvious – because, quite frankly, who can? – but when you’ve lived in Los Angeles for the past decade, returning to the epicenter of some of the world’s best shows, both on stage and set, must satiate an actor’s appetite like nothing else. “I have been dancing around like Mary Poppins because I am so happy to be back,” she laughs.
Known for her roles in BBC’s Sherlock and Spooks, as well as a cluster of brilliant stage performances which earned her multiple Olivier Award nominations, Pulver’s energy is infectious – and it’s borderline impressive that she maintains such a buzz throughout our 40-minute interview given how hectic her schedule has been recently. Among a flurry of upcoming roles (more on that later), we’re here first and foremost to talk about MobLand – Guy Ritchie’s gangster thriller landing on Paramount+ on March 30 – in which Pulver plays Bella Harrigan.
To my surprise, instead of a week filled with press junkets and photoshoots, Pulver’s feet have barely touched the ground as she flits between London, Guildford, and New York. “We’re still shooting [MobLand]. It’s the tightest turnaround I think I’ve ever known. We wrap in Guildford on Wednesday night, travel back Thursday morning, we premiere in London on Thursday night, we do the junket on Friday, and then we fly to New York to do the same thing.”
By flexing his considerable influence, Ritchie has enlisted, in Pulver’s own words, “the great and the good of British actors” for MobLand. Starring Pierce Brosnan and Helen Mirren as the heads of the warring London crime family, the Harrigans, alongside Tom Hardy and Paddy Considine, Pulver’s juicy storyline sees her threaten the Harrigan family fortunes and go up against its matriarch, played by Mirren.
“The ensemble of people both in front and behind the camera is what really attracted me to this project. Pierce and Helen are just hoots; they’re brilliant. It’s so wonderful everyone has that child-like creative energy. I think, as actors, we never really grow up.”
“Bella is smart and savvy, very playful, and she’s damaged. I have a lovely storyline with Pierce; we have the beginnings of a feud between Helen and I’s characters. We’re just sowing the seeds in season one.” So, will there be a season two? “Well, we’ll find out pretty soon. And, to be honest, if I was watching Pierce and Helen in a show, I’d want more – and Tom Hardy fans are getting exactly what they want from Tom. It’s a pretty impressive cast list, and even as we go through the episodes, there’s more announced.”
MobLand, for Pulver, certainly scratched an itch. As a stage-trained actress – who started at National Youth Music Theatre (NYMT), alongside alumni including Jude Law, Sheridan Smith, and Eddie Redmayne, and handpicked by Andrew Lloyd Webber to perform on Broadway aged 11 – Pulver recalls that at the beginning of her career, she felt the need to do TV more than stage.
“There was a moment when Big Brother hit, and all of a sudden that was bleeding into playing leading roles in commercial theatre. I was a trade actor at the age of 22 thinking, ‘I’d like a shot at that part’, but watching someone from Big Brother or X Factor coming in to do it. I remember saying to my very first agent who took me on from drama school that I need to take a break from theatre and do some TV and film. Fortunately, I got the lead at the Donmar Warehouse that year in Parade. That was my turning point. That show was Olivier nominated and took me to the States [which] meant I got my first telly.”
Nearly 20 years on from her first on-set gig, Pulver admits she still can’t do TV without pining for the stage. “I’m really greedy; when I do one, I start yearning for the other. And that’s why something like Adolescence is so genius because it’s a play on telly. I feel very, very fortunate that I have the opportunity to jump between because I love them all for different reasons [...] Nowadays, everyone can do everything. People aren’t pigeon-holed like they used to be.”
It’s actually quite hard not to talk about Adolescence throughout our interview. The Netflix series by Stephen Graham and writer Jack Thorne is not only groundbreaking for its subject matter – putting the UK’s epidemic of incel culture into pin-sharp perspective – but also its filming style, which sees every episode shot in one take. It has become one of the world’s most-watched shows (24.3 million views and counting) and has sparked international political conversations.
Ultimately, for Pulver, it proved the power of British television – but did it reaffirm that the UK's industry is back on track after years of turmoil marked by the pandemic, writers strikes, and cuts? “Well, [yes], if Adolescence is anything to go by. I have worked with Stephen before – and I have just done a Jack Thorne show called The Hack which comes out in September – [but] the way [Graham] champions new writing, and the way he works with networks and commissioners to make sure that regional British telly is going global, is so awesome.”
Post-MobLand, Pulver is getting back in the rehearsal room to prepare for a limited, eight-week revival of Fiddler on the Roof at London’s Barbican – and she couldn’t be more excited about it. Following a sold-out run at Regent’s Park Open Air theatre last summer, and now leading this year’s Oliviers with a whopping 13 nominations, Pulver says: “It’s been a good year for getting back on stage. The open-air theatre is the most magical place and I had the most wonderful summer. There was something so immediate about working in that environment; all of a sudden, thunder would come, and then a full moon would appear. You could sense the whole audience was responding to the energy. It’s quite nice with the momentum of a sold-out run and 13 nominations to be doing it again.”
Despite her starry CV, you’ll be hard-pressed to find Pulver on social media. “I was asked to go on Twitter about 20 years ago when I was in an independent film with an unknown actor called Idris Elba. Then Sherlock happened a couple of years later, and all of a sudden I had 100,000 people wanting to know what was in my sock drawer. “I’m pretty private as a person. I’m very open but I’ve got young kids, I like having a life outside of my job – I think I do my job better because of it. This says more about me than the platform, but I didn’t feel very current and I don’t have a yearning to share in that world. I love talking about my work and things I’m passionate about but beyond that I don’t really know what I’m doing there. And then when everything politically and socially happened, I needed to get off Twitter.”
In an attempt to promote MobLand on Instagram, Pulver admits she had to call in her good friend Georgia Tennant (fellow actress and producer, and David Tennant’s wife) for guidance. “I’m very, very new to Instagram but indifferent. I also like the fact that I don’t know where it is on my phone; I can get to Vinted quicker.”
The Tennants are among several industry figures that Pulver and her husband, actor Raza Jaffrey (who she met while filming Spooks), call friends – and it was these friendships that were among the main draws to defect from LA to London. “America was really good to us, but it was time to come home on so many levels. I am so happy to be around people who get my terrible jokes and sense of humour. “I don’t even care about the weather because I’ve got seasons back. I love the diversity in London, and I love being around my mates and people of all walks of life, not just LA industry. Imelda Staunton’s husband [Jim Carter] is obsessed with cricket so the second my son found out he was basically in Jim’s lap. And these are people we have history with; LA is such a transitory place that it’s very hard to build relationships of that nature.”
America was really good to us, but it was time to come home on so many levels. I am so happy to be around people who get my terrible jokes and sense of humour. Staunton and Pulver were cast in the West End revival of Gypsy in 2014, and Pulver credits Staunton with giving her one of the most important pieces of advice she’s ever received. “This was out of the mouth of Imelda Staunton, and you’d do anything she said. During Gypsy, she asked if I’d like to have kids and I said I would like to have a family soon, and she was like ‘get on with it’. I remember thinking ‘Gosh I’m 35’ [but] it took us quite a long time to get pregnant.
“She and Jim were in LA for a Downton Abbey event and I remember them coming over for lunch; she asked how things were and I said, ‘well, I’m not pregnant’ – as if I’d scheduled it, like I’d finished Gypsy and then I was going to have a baby. She just did this sweet, empathetic laugh and said: ‘Lara, the first lesson of parenting is humility’. And she’s so right; humility is everything, in work and life.”
It’s been a big year for Pulver: both personally and professionally. MobLand is anticipated to be one of April’s biggest streaming hits, while The Hack – the aforementioned Jack Thorne show in which she stars alongside David Tennant and Toby Jones – will shine a new light on the News of the World phone hacking scandal when it’s released in September. As Pulver sees it, she’s finally answered London’s siren call and is feeling pretty at peace. “I had a real high-achiever mentality; I felt like I had to prove my worth. I always felt, [while] doing NYMT with [people from] quite privileged backgrounds, less than. Not having my dad in my life from a very early age, I felt again like I had to prove myself. Another piece of advice which I was given only a year ago and I really hold dear is: ‘you have nothing to prove, but plenty to offer’. That really resonates with me.”
MobLand is available to stream on Paramount+ on March 30, 2025.
