Pirates of the streaming seas: Ed Westwick and the cast of Netflix's Sandokan share the show's swashbuckling secrets
They arrrrrr great
For such an iconic gang in global maritime history, pirates have been less present on screens than most people (okay, me) would like. After the canonical Pirates of the Caribbean series, Hook, and maybe the Pirates of Penzance at a pinch, it’s easy to start drawing a blank at good old swashbuckling screeners.
Luckily, Netflix’s latest series, a revival of the 1960s films (and original books) Sandokan: The Pirate Prince, is the perfect way to fill the peg-legged hole.
The series follows a pirate ship captain and his crew fighting to protect the Dayak from the clutches of the British Empire in South East Asia in the 19th century. We caught up with some of the stars, including Alanah Bloor, Ed Westwick, and John Hannah, to pick their brains on all things piratical.
Pirates or not, there are some iconic movie villains they love
The incomparable Bill Nighy as Davy Jones in Pirates of the Caribbean has to make the list of greatest movie villains of all time, hands down. In fact, any clash of outlaws and government (especially on the high seas) is going to make a slew of cracking morally-questionable characters. For the trio, they’ve got some others they’d add to the list.
“True Romance, Gary Oldman,” sprang to mind for Ed, quickly added with a caveat of there being “so many great ones, though.”
“Alan Rickman in Die Hard, and in Robin Hood,” was another entry from Ed. Although when he went to add another Alan Rickman villain, we thought he was going to say Alan Rickman in Love Actually – and so did Alanah.
The 1850s were fun to act out, but they wouldn’t be using a time machine if they had the choice
It’s so easy to get caught in the romance of period dramas: the sweeping stories, the forbidden love, the rules, and mostly the costumes. Much like every time the nation sits down and watches The Traitors, surgically tearing apart the contestants, and prophesying what they’d be like on it, when confronted with a cracking period drama, it’s easy to wonder if there’s another era you were destined for.
“I would have definitely struggled in the 1850s when it’s set, in the Sandokan world,” John laughed.
“No hot showers, terrible food – that wouldn’t have been good. I’m quite happy with where I am. I think I had the best of it at the end of the twentieth century,’ he added. And he’s probably not wrong.
“It all comes down to when penicillin was invented, right?” Ed chipped in. I mean, we were thinking more Bridgerton gowns than medical practicalities, but unfortunately, he may have a point.
“I would have loved to have lived in a time where if I’d had a crush in school I had to wait by the telephone at home, instead of waiting to see if they'd liked my Instagram story,” Alanah reflected (accidentally making anyone born pre 90s feel suddenly prehistoric).
“A different exposure to romance would have been fun,” she concluded. “Running up a really expensive phone bill at your parents,” Ed laughed.
As a fellow Gen Z, obviously, I agreed with Alanah, reminiscing about the fact that I had never received a mixtape, and that a Spotify playlist just doesn’t have the same effect or charisma to it.
“My daughter’s boyfriend gave her a mixtape this Christmas, actually,” John remembered. “But she’s searching eBay and Amazon now for something to actually play it on...”
It’s pretty much always been about acting for them
A pirate series gets you wondering, thinking back to when you were a kid and dreaming about the cool thing you’d be when you grew up. Not always jobs, either – princes, princesses, pirates, fairies, wizards were all common choices. But it turns out the cast - at least for the most part - were a lot more put together than most of us, with their eyes on acting from day one.
“I think I wanted to be a cowboy – which is basically a modern-day farmer,” John remembered. “But I think I was seduced by Westerns.”
“It was always acting for me,” Ed confessed. “When I was in school, I had to put together this presentation about what I wanted to be, and it was acting – I actually won the competition. My mum had a laminator, and she laminated all the pages, got the treasure tags to bind it and everything. I was lucky because we got to go to the theatre quite a bit. I had no idea how you actually turned that into a job because we weren’t a media family, but luckily I’ve been able to do it for, Jesus, nearly 20 years now.”
For Alanah, it was a similar story; “I don’t think I realised it at the time, but we had this set-up called the role-play corner in primary school, and it would change every week – post office, police station. In 'golden time', which we had every Friday, I’d always want to use it, and I’d get so into it. I’d run around making arrests or getting into the role of the postmistress. I don’t think I realised it was a job at the time.”
That’s a hell of a career realisation when every day is golden time.
It’s strictly acting royalty for any potential cameos
With a cast like this, it’s hard to imagine additions that could make it better. On the other hand, there’s always room for a good cameo – and the cast agrees.
“Captain Jack Sparrow’s got to drop by, I think,” Ed proposed. For Alana, it was Helena Bonham Carter; “I want to see her as a pirate!” she laughed.
“I think Ed would be a pretty good pirate, actually,” Jon mused.
“Who knows,” Ed agreed – “Maybe in the next series?”
Three words. Bring. It. On.
They can't wait for people to see it
Amongst all the fun and silly reminiscing about Octopus-faced villains, and primary school dreams, it's easy to see how much they loved filming.
“It’s an interesting story because it touches on so much," Ed revealed.
"The East India Trading Company, colonialism, depending on who you worked for, that depended on whether you were called a pirate or not, even though the behaviours were very similar. Everyone’s got a secret, everyone’s got an agenda – that’s what’s so exciting about this series.”
Sandokan: The Pirate Prince is now available to stream on Netflix.
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