Cebella “Cece” Marshall has a shrewd head for business. Her brother, Ezekiel “Zeek” Marshall, has a penchant for spectacle necessary to succeed in the fight-promotion business. And while their father, Kingsley Marshall, remains missing in action in this week’s “Fightland,” you’d think the siblings might consider working together to keep the family boxing biz (and its seedier underside) afloat, right?
You’d consider wrong, bruv. Or, as Charles Babalola, who plays Zeek, tells TVLine: “There’s only room for one big dog.”
I sat down with Babalola (“Black Mirror”) and Anita-Joy Uwajeh. (“Vampire Academy”), who plays Cece, on the show’s London set to talk about the Marshall family’s complicated — to put it mildly — dynamics.
TVLINE | Who’s Kingsley’s favorite here?
CHARLES BABALOLA | Come on.
ANITA-JOY UWAJEH | It’s me. [Laughs]
BABALOLA | I would like to say it’s me, but annoyingly…
UWAJEH | He doesn’t really have favorites, but if he’s gonna have one, it’s me.
BABALOLA | But she’s a teacher’s pet though, so you know.
UWAJEH | No, not really.
TVLINE | Do you think that’s been a dynamic for your characters their whole lives? When do you think that started for them?
BABALOLA | For me, I feel like definitely in the early part of our life, there was a lot of things my father wanted me to do which I couldn’t. I could potentially be a boxer, potentially be Duke, right? But I couldn’t live up to that expectation. But then, as the years have gone on, [Marshall has] just warmed to Cece.
UWAJEH | “Warmed” is a strong word. But yeah, he’s definitely de-iced a bit. Similarly to you, I think Cece wouldn’t have been his natural choice. I think it would have been Zeek, his natural choice. I think he’s very much like, “My son takes over. My son is the person that I give this kingdom to and hopefully runs the boxing promotion company or becomes a boxer himself.” But I think once Kingsley realizes — and probably quite early on — that Zeek isn’t quite the son that he would like him to be, I think he’s sort of jumped ship. And he’s like, “Well, it’s Cece.” She’s the one that actually will potentially do something and make something of this business and outside of his own shadow.
