Portugal Colonial - Pierce Brosnan and Helen Mirren on the joys of filming 'MobLand'

The second season of the series finds the Harrigans locked in a power struggle, as internal divisions and external adversaries threaten the family.

Brosnan's Conrad is impulsive yet vulnerable, confronting his own mortality after receiving a brain condition diagnosis.

Maeve, meanwhile, is maneuvering to expand her own power.

The second season of the series, which co-stars Tom Hardy and is co-directed by Guy Ritchie, premiered in September.

"I'm having the time of my life," Brosnan told AFP in an interview.

The former James Bond actor credits screenwriter Jez Butterworth for the "orchestration" of his "clever" plot development.

"He kind of picks elements of you, or your performance from the past, and uses it within the context of the drama," Brosnan said.

To embody Conrad, 73-year-old Brosnan had a process: "You sit quietly with a cup of tea, and you read the script, and you read the script many times over."

"And you just let your imagination run free."

Mirren, meanwhile, said she embraced the freedom her character offered, infusing the role with her own personal touch.

The 81-year-old has played Queen Elizabeth, Alfred Hitchcock's wife and collaborator Alma Reville, and more recently the author Patricia Highsmith in "A Talent for Murder."

When playing real-life figures, she said: "You have to behave like a sort of detective."

The challenge is "to penetrate the psychology of a real person and reflect it as truthfully as possible," she said.

But fictional roles offer greater creative freedom, she added.

"It's fabulous for the person to be in your own imagination," Mirren said.

- 'Haunted' -

The second season of "MobLand" sees Conrad take on new dimensions.

The family patriarch's "mental acuity is definitely in doubt now," Brosnan said, "and he's haunted by the blood on his hands."

"He's haunted by the past," added Mirren, an evolution of character which adds "great color" to the story.

The couple are "very violent and they're very ambitious" -- until suddenly, "it's going a little bit off-piste," she added.

Brosnan said as filming continues, he's become "more reflective" on what's next for Conrad.

"You wonder... am I going to end up with some nurse in a bed somewhere on dialysis or something like this? I have no idea."

Rumors have swirled about alleged tensions between Tom Hardy and the show's producers, but Paramount+ confirmed last month that a third season is in the works, with Hardy, Brosnan and Mirren set to return to the cast.

F.Moura--PC