If you’re looking to experience what New York was like in the 1980s, don’t head to the East or West Sides. Instead, you’ve got to go north — specifically to Toronto, Canada, where the rough and tumble pre-Hudson Yards version of Hell’s Kitchen lives again at Cinespace Studios. That’s where the new MGM+ crime drama The Westies, starring J.K. Simmons and Titus Welliver, set up shop to film its eight-episode first season, which launches with a two-episode premiere on July 12.
During our trip to the Toronto International Film Festival last September, Gold Derby got to scope out The Westies set with series creators Chris Bracanto and Michael Panes serving as our tour guides. The duo are well-versed in New York City crime stories having overseen the 1960s-set, Forest Whitaker-starring MGM+ series Godfather of Harlem for four seasons culminating in the currently shooting feature-length series finale. And while they were too young to experience the swinging ’60s version of Manhattan, the ’80s were definitely their era.
“I lived in Hell’s Kitchen after college,” Panes reveals when we spoke with him and the cast again months after the set visit. “I told our production designer to include my apartment as part of the set, but he didn’t have the resources for that!”
While Panes’ former digs may not be preserved for posterity, stepping into the world of The Westies really did feel like a portal to the past. The showpiece set was a period-accurate streetscape constructed outside the soundstages where most of the show’s interiors were filmed. Scruffy storefronts with graffiti-emblazoned metal grates lined both sides of the boulevard with seedy coffee shops and a run-down newsstand stocked with magazines and newspapers blaring the headlines of the day adding to the ’80s decor.
In fact, the only sign of 21st century modernity were the giant blue screens that flank both ends of the street, allowing for digital extensions to be added during post-production. Simmons and Welliver also served their stints in Hell’s Kitchen as struggling young actors during the Me Decade, and both stars — in their returns to leading roles on series television since Counterpart and Bosch: Legacy, respectively — can attest to the set’s visual and olfactory authenticity.
“I definitely got transported,” Welliver says. “There were times where I was like, ‘Wow, I can smell Hell’s Kitchen in the ’80s — the garbage, the urine, and the vomit. If they ever created a show for Smell-O-Vision, this would be it.”
That level of detail also helped inform the performances of the show’s younger cast members like English thespian Tom Brittney, who was born years and worlds removed from that vanished version of New York. “You could look inside of every single storefront and see props and other things that looked so real,” he says. “I always feel bad for the production designers, because they put stuff in the show that the audience watching at home may never see. But it’s there for us as actors. After awhile on those sets, you forget that there are cameras around you and you’re just there in the world.”
While walking the mean street of this recreated Hell’s Kitchen, Bracanto gave us a Westies 101 crash course. Simmons plays Eamonn Sweeney, the aging head of the titular gang of Irish n’er-do-wells that has marked Manhattan’s West Side as their territory. Brittney’s Jimmy Roarke is Sweeney’s top enforcer and surrogate son who comes to wonder whether “Dad” is still the right person to lead the Westies as the times around them change and outside forces threaten their hold over Hell’s Kitchen.
Those forces include Mafia kingpin John Gotti (Hamish Allan-Headly), an FBI team led by Birdie Polk (Jessica Frances Dukes), Welliver’s crooked cop Glenn Keenan, and City Hall, which intends to build the super-sized Javits Center — future home of the New York Comic Con — on Westies turf.
The gang’s HQ is the 596 bar, which also occupies a storefront on the exterior street set. But getting inside the watering hole requires navigating your way through a series of soundstage warrens before arriving in a place where everyone knows your name… provided you’re a local. A Ms. Pac-Man tabletop, Guinness taps, and frayed pool table complete the picture perfect decor.
It’s here where we briefly encounter Brittney while he’s in between takes of another scene, and the actor holds court with tales from the shoot, including the era-specific music that was piped on the set, including Mötley Crüe and Blondie.
“Alan Taylor, who directed the first block of episodes, would try to play stuff [from the time]” the actor says of veteran TV helmer who has worked on everything from The Sopranos to Game of Thrones. “Occasionally he’d put on the Peaky Blinders soundtrack, and we’d have to go, ‘No, no, no — different show!'”
Brittney also shed some light on the changing relationship between Sweeney and Jimmy, which he likens to a larger “changing of the guard” in the New York underworld. “Going from the old way of the mob worked to this new way, especially with the introduction of cocaine into New York in the ’80s — that changed everything for the gangs,” he noted.
“The unique thing about the Westies is that they weren’t an organized gang with rules, which was their downfall in some ways,” he continued. “You had a load of young guys alongside these older gentleman gangsters not quite getting with the times.”
Speaking of holding court, Sweeney rules his domain from an unassuming throne that’s located a few soundstages over from the 596 — a construction trailer that, on the show, is stationed by the grounds of what will become the Javits Center. While the office and desk chair set-up may not scream “throne room,” Simmons says that anyone who enters that space is absolutely in the presence of a king.
“That’s Sweeney’s throne,” the Oscar-winning actor confirms. “When you’re doing eight episodes with a guy sitting in the same chair, it can be a challenge keep things interesting, but I loved going back to that set every time. It’s a great environment for him, because he’s surrounded by protection. And personally, I never had to worry about the weather!”
To cap off our time in Westies-land, we got to see King Sweeney in action via a tense confrontation with Keenan that occurs in an upcoming episode. No spoilers here, but that scene radically reshapes the dynamics between the characters and awards Welliver and Simmons a chance to go toe-to-toe while making meals of a meaty dramatic moment.
“What I loved about that scene was what I usually love about good writing,” Simmons says months after filming wrapped. “It allowed us to work our way into the scene with subtlety. Things start out jovial and chatty, but as a spoiler-adverse person all I’ll say is that people take turns getting what’s coming to them sometimes.”
For his part, Welliver considers that scene to be his alter ego’s “Taxi Driver moment,” and it remains a favorite memory of his time in Toronto. “It was exciting because I feel like you see Keenan take ownership of things,” the actor says. “He is at a major precipice, and you realize the essence of the man he was.”
Having now recreated New York in the ’60s and the ’80s, Bracanto and Panes are understandably thinking about how to expand their own version of the Marvel Universe, which they semi-jokingly call the “New York Scumbag Universe.”
“We both grew up outside of New York, but consider the city to be our home,” says Bracanto, an ex-Jersey Boy. “So we very much enjoy doing shows set in the different time periods of New York City crime.”
“Of course, we hope someday there’ll be no more crime and therefore no more crime shows,” Panes adds. “But until that time comes, we’re going to cover every single New York gang throughout time.”
Here’s a pitch: Hamilton’s Boys, a 1776-set Rebel gang saga with theme music by Lin-Manuel Miranda.
