Boardwalk Empire season five hits the streets.

Anatol Yusef drops dime on Meyer Lansky.

Boardwalk Empirewashed into the surf after five years on HBO.

Yusef was born in Essex, on the outskirts of London.

He is a Bristol Old Vic Theatre School-trained actor and was a resident member at the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Now thatBoardwalk Empireis coming out on DVD do you have any kind of celebration?

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No, unfortunately no.

Its probably the only thing I enjoy about the awards stuff is the time we get together.

Any opportunity we have to get together, we all enjoy it very much.

Having doneBoardwalk Empire, are you on any kind of HBO shortlist for upcoming projects?

I dont know but I certainly hope so.

It seems to me that HBO are quite mindful of that.

If you look at the cast ofBoardwalk, how many there were involved in other HBO shows.

Mark Wahlberg recently said he wants to putBoardwalk Empireon the big screen.

He told a Jersey paper he wanted to make a movie.

Well, that would be very interesting.

The story of Meyer and Charlie, Bugsy and Frank Costello.

That would be fascinating.

Or, indeed, if they did the period of the time jump.

That was a fascinating time in their lives.

The time around Rothsteins decline and subsequent death.

Depends on what time period they choose.

Were you a gangster fan before you tookthepart?

I think some of them are beautiful films.

Theyre almost anti-royalty, if you like.

Meyers birth certificate says he was born on the Fourth of July.

Im not sure I believe that.

I dont know that its true.

That was perhaps more of Meyers wishes than reality.

Shakespeare did it with the kings and queens of England.

I think in American culture, it takes a similar place.

So, yes, I guess I was interested and I do love those movies.

But I didnt know anything like what I know now.

Its quite amazing, really.

What was the difference between what you found about the real life Meyer Lansky and Terence Winters Meyer Lansky?

I think its pretty accurate.

We dont know that much about the young Meyer.

Lots of criminal records of that time have disappeared.

That would cancel out their prohibition criminal records.

So we dont actually know that much about Meyer as a young man.

We only know through hearsay and stories generally told as the kinds of things gangsters say.

We know more about the man Meyer became.

I think Terence Winters Lansky is pretty accurate.

I read inTough Jewsthat Lansky had to kick heroin.

Tough Jewsis a wonderful book.

Forget the subject matter, its a great book.

He kind of lost his way.

That would be a fascinating thing, to explore that period in Meyers life.

Anything could have happened in that time.

Did you have any experience with gangster street life growing up?

My familys from the East End.

The East End of London is not dissimilar to that kind of Lower East Side/Brooklyn world.

So I had that sense of it.

The other thing is that it is very driven by family.

Most of these gangsters in this period, the foundation was family.

I think thats true of the East End of London.

I wouldnt say it was dangerous when I was younger, but it was a little rough at times.

It isnt alien to me, but I wouldnt say I really know it.

Did any real-life gangsters show up on the set of Boardwalk Empire?

That has happened on quite a few occasions.

I have no way of knowing.

I met someone on the West Coast, a very nice man whose best friend was calledsomeoneLevine.

I suppose you read inTough Jewsthat he was Meyer and Charlies main assassin in Murder Incorporated.

That was one of the few moments that I saw these guys are still relevant and present.

Every kid in Bensonhurst knows the house where Albert Anastasia lived.

When I was younger, some people I knew skirted the edges of those worlds.

What does a dialog coach actually do, hit you when you mispronounce something?

I dont work with a dialog coach, so I cant answer that.

I attribute my accent to having different sounds when I was younger.

There wasnt a lot of Turkish spoken around, but my ear had an agility, if you like.

A large percentage of what we consume is American cartoons and movies, things like that.

I think Ive got some kind of natural whatever for it.

He was kid from Eastern Europe, Russia, so that sound is pretty clear and strong.

You add that to the Brooklyn or Lower East Side accent and you get that sound.

But also the vocabulary allows you do that to yourself.

All those things, some of them are conscious, some of them not, add to Meyers sound.

And the great thing is that you get five years to hone and develop it.

Its something I find easy and enjoyable about acting.

Do you adjust your weight or does it come naturally?

You are mindful of it in some ways.

I think, in the early seasons, I was trying to be young.

I dont know if that was necessary, but I was older than Meyer was.

So, you think about that but it should happen naturally.

The situations he was in, they all certainly had power.

You trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.

Were you taught a method or is it just acting like Olivier told Dustin Hoffman?

In that scene, it was interesting, that process.

You take a moment and realize thats a horrible thing to do.

How do you find the comedy in a role like Meyer?

But it is important to give him some charisma.

Also, my character and us, came from their youth.

On one level, theyre just a bunch of kids trying to get ahead.

That in itself is the comedy.

Whatever the year is, life is like that.

It was such a crazy time in history that there was a comical edge to it.

Is there anything that makes it more fun to play a comedic part or a dark part?

Its fun when youre all in on it, its a collaborative thing and its really fun.

Comedy can take less of a toll on you.

I love acting so it really doesnt matter much.

Did similar relationships form between the actors and the parts?

Did you have a Dutch Uncle like Arnold Rothstein on the set?

Did life imitate art?

When we first started, I spent a lot of time with Vincent and Michael, who played Rothstein.

We kind of needed to, really.

As the seasons went on that became less and it became more genuinely about work.

Youre playing Dirty Dick in the upcomingYou Cant Winwith Michael Pitt.

Its set in the 1920s, do you have an affinity for period pieces?

I dont think so, thats a very different part.

Nowhere near as put together, a bit more vicious and a hot head than Meyer Lansky.

You narrated an episode of a show calledParanatural, do you have an interest in theX-Filesof life?

I dont have a special interest in it, but I believe everything is valid.

I dont rule anything out.

So are there any ghosts at the Royal Shakespeare Company?

Im sure there are.

I havent come across any yet.

I didnt find any ghosts at the RSC.

Is there a different work ethic between British and American film and television?

It depends on which medium.

I think the training is different in England.

Each has established their own techniques.

An American might want to do theater less because one of Americas main exports is film and television.

Hard work is a bit of a misnomer.

Some actors are better when they work hard.

Some actors are much more free and creative when they dont work as hard or dont prepare as much.

Well, thats Ricky.

What are you working on now?

I did do a movie calledBastille Dayin Paris.

That was at the end of the year.

Im developing things, one of which is gaining traction.

Other than that, gainfully unemployed and looking for work.

Looking for a challenging role, that would be the ideal thing.

If the character has a really interesting journey in a world other than mine.

That would be ideal.

Was there any improv inJeeves and Wooster?

It was mostly scripted.

I was very young when I did it.

There was always a little improv.

Steven Fry and Hugh Laurie were always doing something.

Generally not in the scene but to make each other laugh.

Was there any improv inBoardwalk Empire?

We were very faithful to the writing.

It wasnt that kind of job.

I know that during the pilot, Mr. Scorsese was very able to do it.

But its also a time issue.

Any directors from the past you would have liked to work with?

Would you prefer working for Alfred Hitchcock or John Huston?

I think actors are asked less and less about directors.

I would have loved to have worked with a lot.

I would have loved to work with all of them.

I would love to work with Hitchcock or Altman.

Kubrik, Jean Luc Godard, Alan Clarke.

Did you see the documentary on Altman?

He was so collaborative.

All the actors who worked with him loved him.

I still think there are really fine artists out there that Id like to work with.

Of course, Mr. Scorsese, Paul Thomas Anderson and some of the Scandinavian directors as well.

Once you start thinking about it, the list is really endless.