The Westies Cast Interview: J.K. Simmons, Tom Brittney, Titus Welliver And Jessica Frances Dukes

The Westies is more than a gangster drama.

The Westies brings together a powerhouse cast for a brutal new crime drama set in 1980s Hell’s Kitchen. J.K. Simmons, Tom Brittney, Titus Welliver and Jessica Frances Dukes each play characters caught in a dangerous fight over power, loyalty and survival.

Before our conversation turned to the show’s generational conflict and explosive violence, Simmons opened the interview with a compliment that instantly became a personal favorite.

“Nerdtropolis is the best word in the history of words,” Simmons said.

Coming from the man behind J. Jonah Jameson, Tenzin, and Omni-Man, the compliment carried some serious weight. However, the fun introduction quickly gave way to a deeper conversation about The Westies, a gritty crime drama built around power, survival, loyalty, and the dangerous divide between generations.

Set in early 1980s Hell’s Kitchen, The Westies follows the infamously violent Irish gang as the construction of the Jacob Javits Convention Center creates the possibility of a massive financial windfall. Although the Westies are heavily outnumbered by New York’s Five Families, their brutality and cunning allow them to maintain a fragile agreement with the Italian Mafia.

That arrangement becomes increasingly unstable as a younger generation begins challenging the old guard. At the same time, the FBI’s investigation into organized crime threatens everyone operating on both sides.

During my conversations with the cast, Simmons, Brittney, Welliver, and Dukes opened up about the characters living inside this volatile world and what separates The Westies from more familiar mob dramas.

Old-School Control Meets A Younger Generation’s Hunger

Simmons, best known for his Oscar-winning role in Whiplash and his iconic performance as J. Jonah Jameson in the Spider-Man films, plays Eamon Sweeney. He is an established figure trying to maintain control of the organization he helped build. Brittney, best known for his role as Reverend Will Davenport in Grantchester and rumored to be in the running to play Batman, portrays Jimmy Roarke. He is a younger rebel determined to change how the Westies operate.

Brittney explained that the younger characters were shaped by the changing culture surrounding them.

“I think the youth in this show, the younger group of guys, they grew up in a kind of late ’60s, ’70s, a bit more of a rebellious time,” Brittney said. “And that was pretty fun to play, this kind of slight rock and roll attitude of that era.”

That attitude immediately puts Jimmy and his allies at odds with men who believe the old methods remain the safest way to survive.

Brittney described it as “that real rebellion against the way that business, for lack of a better word, is done and trying to change things around.”

The younger Westies are not simply fighting for independence. They are hungry for more money, more power, and a larger place in New York’s criminal underworld. However, their ambitions threaten an already delicate relationship with the Italian Mafia.

For Simmons, Eamon’s side of the conflict centers on control.

“I’m on top of this empire,” Simmons said, comparing Eamon’s position to Yertle the Turtle as he attempts to keep everything beneath him from falling apart.

“The hunger of the young Westies” creates a larger question about how the organization can “continue and survive and thrive,” Simmons added.

That conflict gives the series more than a simple battle between heroes and villains. These characters largely want the same thing: survival. Their disagreement comes from how they believe it can be achieved.

Eamon sees caution, discipline, and respect for established arrangements as protection. Jimmy views those same qualities as restrictions keeping his generation from claiming what should belong to them.

Quiet Moments Become Just As Dangerous As The Violence

The Westies do not hold back when violence erupts. Its confrontations can be graphic, sudden, and difficult to predict. Still, some of the show’s greatest tension develops when nobody is raising a weapon or throwing a punch.

Simmons said his approach to those quieter moments often began with a simple action.

“Just like listening, taking it in,” Simmons said.

Eamon frequently needs to understand a room before revealing what he intends to do. Simmons uses silence to show the calculations taking place beneath the character’s controlled exterior.

Those pauses can feel threatening because Eamon rarely wastes movement or words. Audiences are left watching him study Jimmy, Glenn Keenan, and members of the Italian Mafia while deciding whether someone remains useful, trustworthy, or alive.

Brittney also found important layers of Jimmy outside the gang’s most violent encounters. His scenes with Bridget, played by Sarah Bolger, reveal a side of him that the other Westies rarely see.

“It wasn’t a normal sort of mob wife relationship,” Brittney said. “It was Jimmy being with someone who understood not every part of his world, but enough to kind of let him have those quiet moments between the violence.”

That relationship gives Jimmy a space where he does not need to constantly prove his strength. Bridget may not understand every detail of the criminal world surrounding him, but she recognizes enough to know when he needs protection from it.

Those scenes also raise the emotional stakes. Violence means something different when viewers understand what these characters stand to lose beyond money and territory.

The Westies Draws From History Without Being Trapped By It

The real Westies have long occupied a brutal chapter in New York City history. However, Simmons explained that the central characters in the series are fictional creations placed within a world that also includes recognizable historical figures.

Once he understood that distinction, Simmons did not feel the need to build his entire performance around an exact historical model.

“I did do some reading and some research and watched some videos and some interviews,” Simmons said. “But mostly, I felt like Chris and Michael created Jimmy and Eamon, and our job was to lift those off the page.”

That creative freedom allows The Westies to capture the danger and atmosphere of the period while giving its characters complete dramatic arcs.

John Gotti and Paul Castellano are among the real figures connected to the story’s larger Mafia landscape. However, Eamon and Jimmy are not presented as straightforward recreations of specific men. They can instead embody the wider generational forces reshaping the criminal organization.

The early 1980s setting is also crucial. Hell’s Kitchen is on the edge of enormous change, and the construction of the Jacob Javits Convention Center represents both opportunity and displacement.

Everyone understands that money is coming into the neighborhood. The question is who will control it and how much blood will be spilled before it arrives.

Titus Welliver Uses His Tattoos To Expand Glenn Keenan

Welliver’s tattoos have become a recognizable part of his screen presence, particularly through his years playing Harry Bosch. In The Westies, they take on a different meaning because of the period and the kind of man Glenn Keenan appears to be.

Welliver explained that tattoos carried a different social meaning during the 1980s.

“People wearing tattoos were really kind of considered to be a little bit seedy, a little bit marginalized,” Welliver said.

That made the decision to show them more significant than it might be in a contemporary story. The production had the option of covering Welliver’s real tattoos, as other roles sometimes require, but leaving them visible felt right for Glenn.

“I just sort of wanted to kind of let it all hang out and thought, you know, let’s just let me keep my tattoos, including the ones on my fingers,” Welliver said. “He’s just kind of out there and open. And so it worked for this character as well.”

One important exception is the “search and destroy” tattoo on Glenn’s chest, which Welliver confirmed belongs specifically to the character.

The tattoos help communicate Glenn’s history before the series explains every detail. In a period when visible ink could mark someone as an outsider, Glenn carries that identity openly.

He is not interested in presenting himself as respectable. He appears comfortable allowing people to see exactly what kind of world he has survived.

Jessica Frances Dukes Builds Birdie Through Her Scene Partners

While costumes, accessories, and physical details can help an actor understand a character, Dukes said Birdie Polk truly came together through the people standing across from her.

“It’s not even a material thing,” Dukes said. “The detail is right there. It’s who you’re opposite of.”

An actor can make countless decisions alone during preparation, but Dukes believes those choices must remain open to change once another performer enters the scene.

“Until you’re right across from that person that you’re dancing with constantly, she builds from there,” Dukes explained.

That collaborative approach allowed Birdie to develop naturally through her exchanges with Glenn and the other people operating around the Westies.

“I see now what game he’s playing. I’m going to make a different move,” Dukes said of that process. “And this might not be the Birdie that I thought about or anything. It’s what is happening right now based off of your scene partner.”

Her answer reflects the shifting nature of the series itself. Everyone is constantly reading the person across from them, adjusting strategies, and deciding what can safely be revealed.

Dukes also credited the production design with helping the cast enter the period.

“The 1980s set helps when you’re looking at this beautiful, beautiful environment that they built for this show,” she said.

The world surrounding Birdie is more than a backdrop. It helps shape her movement, behavior, and understanding of where she fits within a neighborhood dominated by powerful and dangerous men.

Why The Westies Feels Different From Other Mob Dramas

Organized crime stories have spent decades exploring the Italian Mafia, with occasional attention given to Russian, Eastern European, and other criminal organizations. Welliver believes the specific history behind the Westies gives this series an identity audiences have not fully experienced.

“This time period in New York, and this conflict between the Gambinos and the Westies, has never been fully realized,” Welliver said. “And so it’s very, very different from anything else that we’ve seen before.”

The Westies were heavily outnumbered, but their reputation for extreme violence gave them leverage. That uneven balance creates a tense dynamic throughout the series.

The Irish gang needs its relationship with the Italian Mafia, but its members refuse to behave like powerless subordinates. Every meeting becomes a negotiation between cooperation and disrespect, and even a small mistake could destroy the arrangement.

The generational struggle inside the Westies makes that threat even more dangerous. Eamon understands how fragile their position is. Jimmy and the younger members see the alliance as something that can be challenged, reshaped, or exploited.

The show’s violence may draw viewers in, but its political maneuvering gives the story its lasting tension.

Dark Humor Keeps The Characters Human

Despite its brutal subject matter, The Westies finds room for humor. Simmons considers that balance essential when telling a story with such high stakes.

“The humor, I think,” Simmons said when asked what audiences may not expect beneath the crime drama’s surface. “Which is, to me, always a virtual necessity in a drama.”

He described the characters as having a “foxhole mentality.” They are surrounded by danger, so humor becomes a way to survive fear, pressure, and uncertainty.

Brittney connected that quality directly to the gang’s Irish identity.

“The Irish kind of gallows humor is part of the identity,” Brittney said. “Even in the darkest of times, trying to find some light. And I think the show does it just perfectly.”

That humor does not weaken the danger.

Instead, it makes these people feel more believable. They joke because the alternative would be admitting how close they are to death, arrest, or betrayal.

The moments of levity also make the violence more unsettling. Viewers may begin laughing with these characters before being reminded of exactly what they are capable of doing.

The Westies work because they understand that brutality alone is not enough. The series surrounds its violence with relationships, ambition, fear, humor, and the constant pressure of a world about to change.

Simmons, Brittney, Welliver, and Dukes each bring a different energy to that world. Together, they help transform a historical criminal landscape into a personal struggle over who controls the future and who will survive long enough to see it.

The Westies stars J.K. Simmons, Titus Welliver, Tom Brittney, Jessica Frances Dukes, Stanley Morgan, Sarah Bolger, Hamish Allan-Headley, Vincent Walsh, Allen Leech, and Hillary McCormack.

The Westies premieres Sunday, July 12, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on MGM+, with two episodes followed by weekly installments.

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