Exclusive: Malachi Kirby talks Hulu's A Thousand Blows and taking boxing lessons
Currently playing on Hulu is Season One of the drama series A Thousand Blows, created, written and executive produced by Steven Knight. Starring and executive produced by Stephen Graham and Hannah Walters for Matriarch Productions, Damian Keogh and Kate Lewis for The Story Collective, and Tom Miller and Sam Myer for Water & Power Productions.
The cast includes Malachi Kirby, Erin Doherty, Stephen Graham, Francis Lovehall, Jason Tobin, James Nelson-Joyce, Hannah Walters, Darci Shaw, Nadia Albina, Morgan Hilaire, Jemma Carlton, Caoilfhionn Dunne, Susan Lynch, Daniel Mays, Adam Nagaitis, Gary Lewis, Tom Davis and Robert Glenister.
Inspired by the true life stories of a group of characters battling for survival in the brutal East End of London in the 1880s. Hezekiah Moscow (Malachi Kirby) and Alec Munroe (Francis Lovehall) best friends on the run from Jamaica, find themselves thrust into the criminal underbelly of London’s thriving bare-knuckle boxing scene. As Hezekiah finds fortune and fame through the art of pugilism, he attracts the attention of the infamous Queen of the Forty Elephants, Mary Carr, who sets about exploiting his talents to further her criminal enterprise. Meanwhile the menacing and self-declared emperor of the East End boxing world, Sugar Goodson, determines to destroy Hezekiah whose ambitions to fight in the West End threatens everything he has built. What ensues is a battle of the old world against the new.
Kirby is best known for his role as Kunta Kinte in the A+E remake of Roots, and as Darcus Howe in Steve McQueen’s BBC/Amazon Prime Video anthology Small Axe: Mangrove. Other credits include Boiling Point, Curfew and Black Mirror. For his performance in Mangrove, he won the 2021 British Academy Television Award for Best Supporting Actor. He also starred in the British comedy-drama Wicked Little Letters opposite the likes of Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley.
Blackfilmandtv.com's Wilson Morales talks to Malaci Kirby on his Hulu's A Thousand Blows and taking boxing lessons.
