JK Simmons & Titus Welliver Bring Irish-American Mob History To Life In MGM+'s The Westies

The Westies follows the eponymous Irish-American gang at the height of their criminal activity, around Hell's Kitchen in the 1980s. Their leader, Eamon Sweeney (Simmons, playing a fictionalized version of real-life Westies boss Mickey Spillane), is making deals with the Gambino crime family despite some resistance from the group's younger members, metaphorically led by Jimmy Roarke (Tom Brittney). To top it off, Sweeney's childhood associate and morally compromised beat cop Glenn Keenan (Welliver) has been tasked with investigating their illegal activity.

ScreenRant and several other press outlets had the honor of watching some of the aforementioned chaos unfold during a visit to The Westies set during 2025's Toronto International Film Festival. Read on to find out what we discovered, and how Brittney, Simmons, Welliver, and the showrunners introduced the series and its characters.

The Westies Focuses On Father-Son Bonds, Though They’re Not Always Blood Ties

From a bird's-eye perspective, The Westies follows the dealings of the infamous Irish-American gang as they attempt to establish themselves among the Five Families, but the show's creators are just as interested in the generational divide found within the Westies themselves.

Brancato set the scene succinctly. "The story is really about a father-son relationship between a man who views this younger guy as his protege" until said protege realizes his father figure isn't quite who he thought. "We all realize the truth about our parents at some point or another, and that's kind of what we're getting at here."

When co-creator Michael Panes joined the set tour, he sketched out a bit more of the details. According to him, Brittney's Jimmy Roarke "is basically the hero of the show." After a rough childhood, Sweeney "picked him up as a kid, put him under his wing, and acted as his father figure." Spoiler alert: "Part of the arc of the first season is Jimmy Roarke's disillusionment with Mr. Sweeney."

Tom is an amazing actor, and he's doing an incredibly layered performance as Jimmy Rourke, who's a thug, but also someone who's smart and thinks three-dimensionally. He also has a moral compass that he realizes is lacking amongst his friends in Hell's Kitchen.

Brittney himself had a very similar view of the dynamic between the two characters, adding that, "It's great to play those things with JK, who naturally makes me feel like a teenager even as I'm standing up to him." The young actor was not shy about expressing his admiration for his veteran costar. "He's one of my favorite actors. I'm working with J. Jonah Jameson! And, of course, Whiplash. I think seeing that career-defining performance, and I get to stand opposite that and stand up to that?"

In a one-on-one interview with ScreenRant, Brancato previewed the trajectory of the "extreme" father-son relationship in season 1: "If you asked Roarke in episode 1 if he would ever cross Eamon Sweeney? He would say, 'Of course not.' But he does so eventually because of the circumstances he's in, and that sets off a little firestorm by season's end."

Don’t Expect The Westies To Be A Documentary

The Westies features real-life members of the '80s Italian-American mafia scene, including John Gotti (played by Hamish Allen Headley) and Gambino crime family leader Paul Castellano (Ron Lee), but they merely serve the larger narrative of Sweeney and Roarke's personal power struggle. "We've got these great mobster characters who are essentially on the side edges of the show, while we focus on the Irish gang and their relationship with both the Italians and with each other."

While the co-creator did acknowledge that he was partially inspired by T.J. English's The Westies: Inside New York’s Irish Mob, he explained that "in order to make these characters who are criminals heroic, you have to take a lot of dramatic liberty and license." In other words, his and Panes' is not meant to replace an actual history lesson. "We seek to tell the truth about this organization, but without necessarily doing a documentary about who they were. We weren't there for the conversation, so we have to make it up."

Some of the people involved with the show were there for at least a few conversations, however. As Brancato pointed out, line producer Ray Quinlan worked on the West Side docks and personally knew several members of the mob. Even star Titus Welliver had personal awareness of the Westies, as he revealed that he had a roommate whose father was a Westie. However, Brancato opted to stick to secondhand sources for the most part. "I try not to talk to too many of the actual people because I don't want them to get angry about what I end up writing."

J.K. Simmons seemed thrilled about this fictionalized approach to the story, reveling in the fact that "it's inspired by, as opposed to based on, which is an important distinction."

I'm making no effort to play a specific Mickey Spillane or James Coonan, or any combination of these guys. I'm playing the fictionalized version that Chris and Michael put on the page, and that we continue to evolve. Hopefully, we continue to evolve him for several more seasons. Ultimately, at some point, I've got to get what's coming to me. I'm earning it.

Toronto Becomes New York City In The Westies

Despite taking place in the heart of Hell's Kitchen, The Westies was primarily filmed in Toronto. That was where ScreenRant witnessed the Cinespace Studios lot disguised as several New York City streets circa 1980. "It's a little cheaper to do here," showrunner and part-time tour guide Chris Brancato revealed straightforwardly. "With the help of visual effects and AI, we can actually do some big shots of New York City in 1980 that will blend into [our] set."

Even without the aid of technology to enhance the NYC ambience, the sets were immersive and detailed, evoking the seedy corners known to be home to all manner of underhanded criminal dealings. Brancato admitted that the location scouting actually yielded street corners that would approximate the show's setting, "but it would require so much visual effects work to paint out surveillance cameras, so we decided to build our own New York City street."

One New York location in particular holds special significance in the show and the real world: Club 596 Bar. "It's actually the real club where the Westies congregated," Brancato explained, and it's also where several crucial scenes are set. When we visited Brittney on the bar set, he added his personal reaction to the environment: "In the bar, when it's crowded with people drinking fake Guinness, you feel like you're there. It feels like you're just living this life of these guys."

Irish Music Meets 1980s New York City On The Westies Soundtrack

As fictional as the story may be, the music will be historically and spiritually accurate. "The music is this great blend of Irish music that gets you psyched up for what the show is, and songs you remember that put you right back in 1980s New York," Brancato shared with excitement.

Brittney echoed the sentiment, revealing that "we've had directors who will play '80s music to get us into characters where we've had fight scenes." While the songs played on set aren't always the ones that make it to the final cut, it's clear the creatives behind the scenes have a real love for music that fits the time and place.

Another perfect example of the show’s music conveying the atmosphere of New York City at that time is the title credits sequence, which features the punk rock musings of Dropkick Murphys’ “Dropped on my Head” against the backdrop of character and cityscape pencil sketches. "I work with Digital Kitchen and a group of very talented people led by a guy named Mason Nichols," Brancato shared in a separate interview.

We started talking about trying to, first of all, capture an '80s vibe. He showed me some movie posters from the '70s and '80s, like Mean Streets and other ones that were sketched like that a little bit. Some with color, some without. That led us to the idea of trying to do something that was going to really stand out as interesting graphic design for the show and also capture the flavor of the '80s.

Titus Welliver Has Been Waiting For A Chance Like The Westies For Decades

While speaking with reporters visiting the set, Welliver revealed that he had a personal investment in appearing on the show. Besides the fact that he lived through the Westies' heyday and felt that "it's a story that has never been told, or has only been halfheartedly told," he also jumped at the opportunity to make a show with his old friends.

Despite having known Brancato and Panes for 30 years, "I'd only done a role in a pilot that Chris had done ages ago, and we had always wanted to work together. Obviously, from Narcos to Godfather, I wanted to be in that world." The actor even acknowledged, "I was trying to figure out a way to get on Godfather of Harlem when I was doing Bosch, but it was never a possibility to go and beg him for a job."

Ironically, it was a different mutual friend who alerted Welliver to The Westies' existence. "The actor Yul Vasquez said they were working on this show, and that's what opened up the whole conversation. They were, of course, deep in the trenches of writing and getting it ready. It was a perfect storm. It all came together, and we ended up here in Toronto."

Furthermore, Welliver was more than impressed by the writing for his character, harkening back to his beloved role on Bosch when imagining scenarios for the new MGM+ show's longevity. "If you're going to do 10 years on a show and be fulfilled, you have to look at the material." In his view, Glenn Keenan "is the absolute polar opposite of Harry Bosch. He's a deeply damaged, broken, and morally conflicted guy. He's very dark, and he's brutal."

To get into that, I know a lot of cops, so I've had great conversations as far as [understanding] that behavior. There are a lot of things the cops did back then that they could never get away with today. It was just a deep dive into that, and this character is so rich and so nuanced. You don't really know what's coming next with this character. And that, as an actor, is gold because these guys gave me this gift of incredible dialogue and allow me to fly and to soar.

Brancato stepped in to lavish praise on the actor. "There are these little grace notes that he does in the performance that we notice, sitting here on camera, that add up to a characterization so different than Bosch." Not only is it a far cry from his most famous role, "it's so different than anything he's done before." And still, "He makes you root for him, even though he's doing some heinous things. That's our task always; we take awful people and try to make them watchable."