MOB CITY
It was late summer 2013, and I was on the set of Mob City, a six-hour miniseries about LA gangsters, set in 1947. Three-time Oscar nominee Frank Darabont was making it for TNT, and I was playing Bugsy Siegel. Dressed in a 1940s suit, a gun in my hand, and armed with some of the juiciest dialogue an actor could ask for, I was having a blast. Ever since optioning the rights to Bill Kennedy’s book Legs, I had always wanted to play a gangster. What could be better than playing the womanizing, volatile, Brooklyn-born Siegel? I always love a job that doesn’t require me to curb my accent. When my agents called me about the offer, and I knew Frank Darabont was at the helm, I jumped at the chance.
I spent that summer traveling back and forth to LA. I was having fun playing Bugsy and working with an incredible group of actors. In addition, Frank was opening my eyes to the cinematic possibilities of TV. The HBO series Entourage had introduced me to quality productions, but this was different. TNT had given Frank complete creative freedom and a budget big enough to re-create LA in the 1940s. Essentially, we made a movie every week.