Tyler Conti Discusses His Roles in Fightland and Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen

Actor Tyler Conti is stepping into two distinctly different corners of the crime genre. In Fightland, the boxing drama executive produced by Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, he leads as Justin “Jay” Hall, a character drawn into a story where boxing, power, money, and loyalty are difficult to separate.

Released July 31 on Sky/Starz, Fightland follows a disgraced, formerly incarcerated boxing champion who returns to London determined to settle scores with the crime family he believes betrayed him. Beneath its revenge-driven premise, the series also examines the relationships fractured by his absence and the consequences waiting for him when he returns. As Jay, Conti is placed directly within those tensions, navigating old wounds and shifting loyalties while confronting how difficult it can be to regain control once violence has become embedded in everyday life.

More recently, Conti appears as a series regular in the second season of Netflix’s popular series The Gentlemen. Created by Guy Ritchie, the show brings Theo James and Kaya Scodelario back into its collision of crime, class, dark humor, and increasingly complicated power struggles. For Conti, the role offers another entry into the criminal underworld, but through a markedly different lens from Fightland’s bruising boxing drama, trading the ring for the calculated maneuvering and unpredictability that define Ritchie’s world.

Those roles follow work across both screen and stage, including HBO’s Tell Me Everything, Departures, The Beast of Blue Yonder, Wuthering Heights, and The Changeling at Shakespeare’s Globe. With a leading role in Fightland and a new place within one of Netflix’s biggest crime series, Conti is clearly reaching a broader international audience while continuing to move between characters and genres that require very different performances.

Ahead of the release of The Gentlemen season two, Conti spoke with us about building Jay, the physical and emotional demands of Fightland, entering Guy Ritchie’s world, and what he hopes to explore as his career continues to expand.

Fightland introduces viewers to a brutal, high-stakes world of boxing, crime, money, and loyalty. When you first read the scripts, what stood out to you about Jay and the world he belongs to?

Tyler Conti: What grabbed me was that Jay isn’t necessarily the loudest person in the room, but he’s someone you feel is always taking everything in. There’s a real intelligence to him. He’s grown up around this world, so the danger isn’t something that shocks him—it’s part of his normality. I found that quite interesting because it meant I didn’t want to play him as someone who was constantly reacting to the violence around him.

There’s also a real sense of history in Jay. He has relationships with these people that go back years, and that makes his decisions much more complicated. It isn’t simply about right and wrong for him; it’s about who you stand beside when you’ve known someone for most of your life. That was the thing that really pulled me into him.

The series seems to be as much about relationships and old wounds as it is about boxing and power. What did you find most interesting about Jay’s bond with Duke?

Tyler Conti: I think Jay knows Duke in a way that very few other people do. There’s a familiarity between them that existed long before all the things that happen in the series. Jay remembers the person Duke was before everything changed, and I think that gives him a different perspective on him.

What I liked was that their friendship isn’t sentimental. They can disagree, they can challenge each other, and there are moments where Jay has to question whether he’s doing the right thing by Duke. But underneath all of that, there’s this very deep loyalty.

A show like Fightland has physical intensity, but it also has a lot of emotional facets. What kind of preparation helped you find both sides of Jay?

Tyler Conti: The physical side was obviously important, but I found that the biggest preparation was understanding where Jay sits within the world. He’s around boxing constantly, so I wanted his physicality to feel like second nature rather than something he was demonstrating for the audience.

The emotional preparation was probably more about restraint. Jay doesn’t always say exactly what he’s thinking, and I think sometimes the most useful thing was understanding what he wasn't saying. You have to trust the audience to pick up on those little things. We did a lot of physical work, but for me the character really came together through those quieter moments.

The show deals with people trying to rebuild, make amends, or reclaim control in a world where violence and loyalty are constantly colliding. How does Jay fit into that larger tension?

Tyler Conti: Jay is interesting because he isn’t really trying to reinvent himself. He’s trying to protect the people and the relationships that matter to him while everything around him is shifting. That can be just as difficult.

He’s also caught between different ideas of loyalty. Being loyal to someone doesn’t necessarily mean agreeing with everything they do, and Jay has to work that out for himself. I think the show asks a bigger question about how much of yourself you’re willing to compromise for the people you love. Jay is constantly navigating that line.

50 Cent has built a strong television presence with crime dramas that move quickly but still give characters room to breathe. What was exciting about joining a project with that kind of creative energy behind it?

Tyler Conti: There’s a confidence to the world 50 Cent has created. These shows don’t shy away from difficult subjects, but they’re also very character-driven, so you’re not just watching events happen—you’re invested in why people are making those choices.

What I particularly liked about Fightland was that it didn’t feel like we were trying to recreate something that already existed. We had the freedom to find our own identity within that world. For me, that was exciting because you’re not coming in with a template for exactly what the character should be. You get to discover it with the rest of the cast and filmmakers.

You are also joining Season 2 of The Gentlemen, which has such a distinct tone and rhythm. What was it like stepping into Guy Ritchie’s world?

Tyler Conti: It was probably one of the biggest learning experiences I've had because the world is so established. You have to understand the rhythm of it, but you also have to make sure you’re bringing your own character rather than simply trying to imitate what you think a Guy Ritchie character should be.

Guy is very instinctive. He might give you something slightly different in the moment, or there can be freedom in how you approach a scene, so you have to stay completely present. I actually really enjoyed that because it stops you from becoming too comfortable. You’re listening, responding, and making decisions in real time.

And then there are moments where you look around and think, ‘How am I actually here?’ I grew up watching his films, so being on that set was pretty surreal.

Fightland and The Gentlemen both exist within crime-driven spaces, but they seem to operate with very different textures. As an actor, what did each project ask of you in a different way?

Tyler Conti: They’re almost opposites in terms of how you enter the world. With Fightland, everything was being built around us, so there was a sense of discovery. I could really dig into Jay and work out how he moved through this world as we were creating it.

With The Gentlemen, the DNA is already there. The audience knows the tone and has an expectation of that world, so there’s a responsibility to fit into it while still making Joe feel like a real person.

I also found that Fightland needed me to be quite grounded and emotionally contained, whereas The Gentlemen gives you permission to have a bit more fun with things. Joe has a swagger and a sense of humor, and finding that side of him was a completely different muscle for me to use.

With two major international projects arriving close together, this feels like an exciting moment for you. How are you processing this chapter in your career, and what are you most excited for audiences to see?

Tyler Conti: I’m trying not to get too caught up in the idea of it being a ‘defining’ year because I think that can make you look too far ahead. I’m incredibly grateful that these two shows are coming out and that they’re going to reach people who might not have seen my work before.

What excites me most is that the two roles are so different. Someone could watch Fightland and then The Gentlemen and hopefully not feel like they’re watching the same actor doing the same thing. That’s what I want—to keep surprising people, but also to surprise myself. If I can keep getting opportunities that make me slightly nervous, I think I’m probably moving in the right direction.

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