*Nicholas Pinnock knew Kingsley Marshall would take him somewhere he hadn’t gone before as an actor: straight into villain territory.
In STARZ’s “Fightland,” Pinnock plays the intimidating criminal kingpin and former boxing promoter at the center of Duke Kilroy’s quest for revenge. Although Kingsley mysteriously disappears, his influence hangs over virtually everyone left behind — and Pinnock promises his character’s absence is setting viewers up for something big.
“There’s going to be a massive gear shift when Kingsley returns,” Pinnock told EURweb in an exclusive interview. “And trust me when I say that, and I’m saying this from the scripts… his absence has many payoffs. So it’s going to be worth waiting for him to come back.”
Nicholas Pinnock Embraced Playing the Villain
“Fightland,” executive produced by Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson through G-Unit Film & Television, follows former heavyweight champion Duke Kilroy (Howard Charles), who returns to London after eight years in a U.S. prison seeking revenge for his brother’s death.
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Duke believes Kingsley betrayed him, but when he arrives home, Kingsley has vanished. Duke then sets out to infiltrate his criminal empire while confronting another complication: Kingsley’s wife, Joy (Deborah Ayorinde), is the love of Duke’s life.
For Pinnock, stepping into Kingsley’s world presented a new acting challenge.
“I’ve never played the villain before,” he told EURweb. “And he is an out-and-out villain.”
Pinnock said he deliberately looks for roles that put him at risk of failing because that’s where the challenge lies.
“I’m always looking for the next opportunity to cause me to fail when I’m looking for a new role, so that I can rise to the challenge,” he explained.
Kingsley proved especially demanding.
“I found him very difficult to play,” Pinnock said. “He’s very difficult in my body because he has a lot of anger and a lot of manipulation. And he’s quite sinister, and he’s very intimidating.”
To find the character, Pinnock worked on everything from Kingsley’s physical presence and wardrobe to his voice, drawing inspiration from someone he knew in college whose distinctive delivery reminded him of the character.
He credits the writers and showrunners with giving him “free rein” to explore Kingsley and develop his interpretation.
Why Kingsley Is Obsessed With Duke
The relationship between Kingsley and Duke is more complicated than a standard hero-villain showdown. According to Pinnock, Kingsley’s feelings toward Duke contain something unexpected: admiration.
“Duke, as far as Kingsley is concerned, is the person that Kingsley would love to have been,” he said. “He emulates Duke. He wants to be Duke.”
That respect goes remarkably deep.
“Not even his kids come close to the respect that he offers and the reverence that he has towards Duke,” Pinnock revealed.
But admiration doesn’t make Kingsley any less dangerous. Pinnock said Kingsley remains manipulative and believes he controls Duke — although he deliberately described that control as “loosely.”
“They’re very similar,” Pinnock said. “And Duke doesn’t know how similar he is to Kingsley until a certain point that we will see. And then it becomes extremely complicated, their relationship.”
Family and Crime Are the Same Business
Kingsley isn’t a crime boss who comes home and becomes a different man. Pinnock says there is essentially no separation between Kingsley the husband and father and Kingsley the criminal.
“They don’t clash. They’re intertwined because he involves his whole family in these criminal enterprises,” he explained. “He’s father and boss and head of the crime family all at the same time.”
And while Pinnock leaves Kingsley’s larger meaning to the show’s writers, he knew exactly what needed to come through in his performance. “It was important to put across the message that he was in charge and nobody else was,” Pinnock said. “That he would do anything to get what he wants.”
His warning about Kingsley’s limits — or lack of them — may say everything viewers need to know before the character resurfaces.
“He will play fair until you play dirty,” Pinnock said, “and then he’ll play dirtier than you could ever imagine.”
With Duke pushing deeper into the Marshall empire, that promised “massive gear shift” could make Kingsley’s return one of the most consequential moments of the season.
Watch our conversation with Nicholas Pinnock below.
New “Fightland” episodes stream weekly on Fridays on the STARZ app, all STARZ streaming and on-demand platforms.
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