A Town Called Malice: Tahirah Sharif Interview

Tahirah Sharif plays Cindy in new Sky Original series A Town Called Malice, it’s a musical love letter crime drama to the 1980’s and here she tells us about the series.

What attracted you to A Town Called Malice?
When I read the script, I was hooked straight away. It was so well written and so punchy, exciting and powerful. What I loved about it so much was the fact that this world is hyperreal and colourful with loud characters and music. But what really drew me to it was the fact that, despite that, the characters are really grounded in reality. Even though the world is colourful and loud, the characters are always relatable. I honestly hadn’t read anything like it ever. It was just incredibly exciting. It was a no-brainer to say yes to it.

What makes Nick so special as a writer?
The relatability of his characters. You really get his personality through his writing. Even in the descriptions, it’s still so Nick. It’s not like he’s trying to write a novel with fancy words. He’s just saying it how he would say it in real life, warts and all and rough or raw, and I just really related to that. You don’t usually get scripts like that. I’m very South London, and so it just got me immediately. I could hear these people already and had a good idea of who they were. I heard Nick throughout the entire script.

As you come from South London, did the characters really ring true for you?
Definitely. Obviously, I wasn’t 30 years old in the 80s. But I’ve got my family – my mum, aunties, uncles – who were about that age in the 80s. Just looking at photos of my family at that time in Brixton, South London, it was great to be able to recreate that world. Doing it authentically was so fulfilling – and definitely relatable as well because that’s where I’ve been born and bred.

Can you outline Cindy for us?
First of all, I just love her so much. Obviously, she has a very cutthroat side. But I hope everyone loves her because it’s been such an actual dream to play her. How would I describe her? She’s everything. She’s a badass, but she is also extremely vulnerable and has been through really traumatic events. They have shaped her into the woman we meet in A Town Called Malice.

What drives her?
Like everyone, she’s searching for love. She’s searching for a family that she hasn’t had and finds that with Gene and will do anything for him. Cindy’s the kind of person who’s extremely loyal. Once you have her loyalty and her love, she will do absolutely anything for you and anything to keep that. Rightly or wrongly, she will hold on so tight. But also, don’t mess with Cindy! As Tahirah, I’m really petite, so obviously Cindy’s really petite, too. But don’t underestimate her due to her size because she will definitely put you in your place!

Cindy is a really complex character, isn’t she?
Absolutely. What really hit me when I read the script was how much of a fantastic character this is for a woman to play. She’s not just one thing. She’s not just a femme fatale or a sexy, badass woman doing action sequences. She’s all of those things, but she’s also really flawed. She’s struggling with so many issues and past traumas. She’s strong and she’s sassy. But she’s also very soft – she has just been hardened by circumstances. And she’s unpredictable. There are so many moments from Cindy in the show that you just don’t expect. Even for me as an actor reading the script, I was thinking, “Wow, this is pretty wild!”

You and Jack seem to have a great chemistry on screen.
I’ve got a lot of love for Jack. Honestly, I think from the first moment we read together in our chemistry audition, we just started talking about growing up in South London and going to school there. It was just such a natural rapport that was built up within 15 minutes of ever meeting one another. And so naturally, when we went into the audition scene, it was just really easy. I said to Jack on set, “You’ve made my job so much easier because we’re on the same level in terms of our work ethic and our styles of acting”. It’s very naturalistic, and we trusted each other, which is really important. And so we could feed off each other and ad lib and just make things more natural because you have to sell this relationship and make it really believable. I really, really loved working with him. He’s extremely talented and just a really wonderful human being.

Is it true that you were at the same school?
Yes. I’m a bit older than Jack, but we bonded over that. We actually had the same drama teacher, Mrs Simpson. So we had a lot of great conversations about school and our experience there.

What do you hope that people will take away from watching this drama?
First of all, I really hope people just enjoy it. Obviously, I’m biased, but I truly do believe that there is something in it for everyone. I think on the surface, it seems like a crime drama about this family who have escaped to the Costa del Sol in the 80s, but it’s so much more than that. Some people are going to love it for nostalgic reasons. Then there’s probably a younger audience that are going to love it because it’s retro and cool, and there’s been a massive resurgence in 80s fashion and music. But I just hope that people will really get behind the characters and adore the heart of this story about family and love and their sometimes-desperate need for survival. It’s not always pretty, and there’s not always a happy ending. But I hope that people are just as excited by this show as we are!

A Town Called Malice is airing Thursday nights on Sky Max.