Hamish Allan-Headley is front and center in The Westies, playing legendary mobster John Gotti in the MGM+ series. It’s an intriguing bit of casting, since the actor isn’t that far removed from his intense portrayal of Robert Sawyer in Mayor of Kingstown. While he’s now on the other side of the law, he brings the same bite to his new role—and is an immediate standout.

In an interview with TVBrittanyF.com, Hamish spoke about taking on such a well-known role as John Gotti. He discussed what attracted him to The Westies and what his creative process was to make his version of Gotti feel different. Plus, did anything from his years on Mayor of Kingstown help him while stepping back into the crime drama world?

Brittany Frederick: You just spent a few seasons doing a crime show in Mayor of Kingstown, and then you turned up in an episode of Chicago PD as well, so what was it about The Westies that made you want to stay in this genre?

Hamish Allan-Headley: So much. I’ve been living in New York for 20 years now, and I was bartending [while] doing the actor thing, working in theater, and all that stuff, and so I’ve heard lots of Westie stories in my time here in New York City. So when I heard that they’re doing a series of it, I was very excited; in fact everybody was. Everybody and their dog wanted to be on this show. [Laughs.] It was a really exciting job that everybody was looking forward to auditioning for… I never thought in a million years that I would be playing John Gotti, but there you go.

Yet Gotti’s been talked about so often in true crime, and then dramatized as well in other projects, so what’s your way in to making your version of John Gotti different?

As an actor, when you book a job, you have about ten minutes of excitement, and then sort of the reality hits that you actually have to do this job now. And when that came down for me, it wa pretty overwhelming. I just sort of wandered around the house for a couple of days, sort of muttering “John Gotti” under my breath, and how am I going to do this, and all that. And then my wife was like, you’ve got to get a hold of yourself and get to work here. [Laughs.] So I snapped out of that, and then I just grabbed as much literature as I could.

There’s a couple of really great books about him, and so many of his contemporaries have given really wonderful interviews since that time. So I just got into it as much as I could. There’s so much material around him, but a really wonderful thing is that there [aren’t] a lot of interviews given by him. There’s just FBI tapes and all this other stuff. So as an actor, you’re able to use your imagination and create a character. You’re not trying to do an impression, and so you’re able to really fill out the character.

Viewers of The Westies are likely going to recognize you from your role in Mayor of Kingstown, which it was somewhat of a surprise that Robert was killed off in the most recent season. These are two different shows in different eras, but similar in tone and genre, so did you carry anything from Kingstown to this?

I was surprised as well. I made it a lot longer on that show than I expected I would, which was great. I was really happy. It was a wonderful thing to work on, and I think in the last season they gave me some really great stuff to do, in terms of character development. [Robert] had a real bottom, and that kind of complication is just an absolute dream for an actor to play, so I felt really fortunate.

I think the thing that I learned in working with all the guys on Kingstown was it’s really important, even if you’re working in a really dark, complicated world, to bring joy to it. To really enjoy the performance part of it—and I think that comes through on camera. You look at all those actors on Kingstown, and the world is so dark and [all the characters are] having a really hard time, but everybody loves acting and loves coming to work.

I think that to work with such dark material and not have that enjoyment of the job would be really tough, so I tried to bring that into The Westies. I was so pleasantly surprised when I got to the set, and everybody was like that on The Westies. It was one of the greatest sets I’ve ever worked on. It was really fun.

The best part of The Westies is just that collection of actors within the show. It’s really perfectly cast. What’s the biggest thing you’ve learned from working with this group of people?

There’s so many things. They’re all such professionals; they all just really do their work… Guys like Titus [Welliver] and J.K. Simmons, they’re real journeymen actors and they really love acting, and so you feel that when you’re in a scene with them. At first you sit down [and] you’re like, oh my God, it’s J.K. Simmons—and then immediately, because he’s so relaxed and prepared, you’re just in the scene. He’s Eamon and I’m John, and we’re doing it, and having that clarity and that professionalism is something that I will never forget.

Without giving anything away, are there scenes in The Westies that you really loved that viewers should be looking forward to?

Anything that I got to do with with J.K. was really fun, because he’s so on and electric. And then with Tom [Brittney] and Stan [Morgan]; those guys were just so wonderful together, and we have a couple of really great scenes—one in particular, later in the season, that I have with those two was maybe my favorite thing to do because it’s such a wonderful chess match. It was great.

Speaking of journeyman actors, you’re one of those stars who has been in so many great shows over the years. What’s one project that you would want fans of The Westies to check out?

I love Kingstown. I think that’s a really great show. I’m really, really proud to be part of that, and I think that’s the thing that I would probably send people over to. As you said, it’s a hard watch, but it’s such quality and every actor on that show is so dedicated. I felt like I was just part of the scrappiest crew. Everybody was just digging in and doing their work and bringing it. When you came to work every day, you just knew that everybody was going to bring their “A” game.

Just purely as a fan, is there anything else you love about The Westies? Anything else you want the audience to know as they dive into the series?

I’m really excited for everybody to see this. I think it looks so cool, in terms of it looks like the city. We shot this thing in Toronto, and I know that there was a lot of discussion about how is this going to look like New York, and it just does, I wasn’t here in the ’80s, but I’ve been here 20 years, and it just feels like New York. I didn’t expect that. I was like okay, we’ll see how this goes—but man, it was just so cool.

It gets the character of the city. You’re in Manhattan with these guys on the West Side, and then they come out to Queens… and they captured the essence of it in such a wonderful way. It’s a hard place to capture; there’s so many parts, and there’s so many nuances to the city. I feel like people are going to love that it’s just so steeped in that New York nostalgia.

The Westies airs Sundays at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on MGM+. Photo Credit: Jackie Brown/Courtesy of MGM+, headshot courtesy of IMPR.

Article content is (c)2020-2026 Brittany Frederick and may not be excerpted or reproduced without express written permission by the author. Follow me on Twitter at @BFTVTwtr and on Instagram at @BFTVGram. For story pitches, contact me at tvbrittanyf@yahoo.com.