Why Alex Fine Was ‘Very Happy’ With That ‘MobLand’ Death

Jan Da Souza (Joanne Froggatt) was deeply duped once again in MobLand Season 2. After falling prey to an undercover officer’s false friendship in the series’ first run, this time she was honeypotted by Donnie (Alex Fine), one of Kat McAllister’s (Janet McTeer) enforcers, who took advantage of her estrangement from Harry (Tom Hardy) to seduce her.

Donnie was wildly successful at capturing Jan’s imagination, too, sliding between his true persona as a ruthless gangster associate and his facade as a timid loverboy and back again with ease — all the while, secretly communicating with Seraphina (Mandeep Dhillon) about any Harrigan family attack plans by Frankie (Johnny Flynn) to make sure she wasn’t a casualty.

In the end, though, Jan found out about his true identity, thanks in part to a timely warning from Harry, and she used her newfound intel to trap Donnie, shooting him in the neck.

To break down this at times steamy (and always dangerous) character arc, TV Insider caught up with Alex Fine, and it turns out, the actor was “very happy” with how Donnie went out … for one specific reason. Read on.

Donnie worked for Kat and, thus, new Season 2 villain, Frankie. How fun was it for you to get into this wildly colorful, villainous crew?

Alex Fine: I worked for Kat McAllister in Season 1. She sent me to find Harry, Tom Hardy, so I was introed as Donnie in Season 1, and then Season 2, I play more of a honey trap for her rather than a bouncy hunter sort of way… That’s always a very fun part, is to play something you’re not. So I think, yeah, it’s great. And then I love people’s reactions in the street, assuming that I might be that character or that guy, and then so that’s been fun, especially in New York.

Do you have a lot of people coming up to you in the street?

Yeah. One lady assumed that we were filming a reality show, I think, because she was yelling at me in the street, and then she threw an apple at me from her purse, and so that was fun. But then you get the other side of it, where people really admire watching a show, and then that’s an extremely exciting thing as well.

Donnie could be quite a charmer when he was pretending to be Jamie with Jan. How fun was it for you to switch on to that part of his persona? 

That was really fun because, I mean, I liked working with Jan, and Joanne Froggatt, she was great. So, just being able to work with her was fun. The scenes and date scenes were fun to play the different side of a hitman.

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Do you think there’s any part of him that actually cared for Jan, or was it all a ruse?

No, I think there’s zero care for her at all. There’s no intention of telling her who he really is. There’s no run-off-in-the-sunset type mentality. It’s all orders…

Do you think he liked being Jamie more, or was he happy just being Donnie?

I’ll say Donnie, just in the fact that, I mean, it’s always going to be easier being yourself than it is being someone else. And he started getting into some trouble towards the end of it as Jamie, so I would say he probably preferred being Donnie.

That was a fatal step there. He also had a secret connection with Seraphina. Why do you think he looked after her in those situations when he knows it’s about to get violent? Was it because Kat would want him to, or is it because he didn’t want her to get hurt?

No, there was an order from Kat. So I was her handler, in a sense. So when Kat McAllister, Janet McTeer, basically gives Seraphina the phone and says, “Call this number,” it’s my number, and I’m her handler. So, Donnie doesn’t really care about anything other than the job. And if she’s meant to call me, then that’s just an order.

When Sera decided to warn her family about him, was he taken off guard?

No, I would say that everything is kind of a calculation, and everyone knows the risk of the game, and it’s a fine line. So I would say nothing can be too surprising, just because any outcome can happen in a life or world.

He was also outsmarted by Jan in the end. Would he have really killed her on Frankie’s orders? And what did you think about the twist that she killed him?

Yeah, no, he would kill anyone on any orders, especially to save himself, so he’s not a good person and has no attachment. So yeah, he would have killed her, given the opportunity, and I think it was surprising that she caught on to him, in a way, for him, but then once he figured out she did, I don’t think it was surprising at all that he was shot in the neck by her. I think he, when he saw the gun, pretty much knew his time was done.

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What was your reaction to reading that in the scripts? How did you feel about your demise? Were you given a proper warning? Did you know ahead of time that that was going to be your fate?

Yeah, we talked about it in the beginning of the year. I mean, it was kind of like, “Your love interest is going to be Jan,” so we knew that Donnie had to come to an end at some point. But I didn’t really know how, so it was interesting just reading and finding out how it happened, when it happened… That was never a surprise that he was going to go. It’s just a matter of when and how.

What was your initial reaction when you read it in the script and the way that it unfolds? The shooting itself?

I don’t know. I think my initial reaction was not surprised. I’m happy it was Jan, and then it was kind of a little sad because you worked with all the cast and crew for the past two years, and you know you’re not gonna all be in the same room together again after that. So it was mixed emotions in that sense.

Of course. In general, like you’ve already said, no one in Mobland is safe, and it’s actually a compliment to have a great death. Do you feel like that was the right way for him to go out?

Yeah. I’m very happy. Joanne Frogget shot me in the neck. I think that was a good way for Donnie to go.

MobLand, Thursdays, Paramount+