It would be fair to say that Alfie Allen, of the pre-dynastic London arts family, has made his own name in the world. Eight seasons on the world’s biggest TV show Game of Thrones showed the world that Allen’s chops were refined, though anyone paying attention to his theatre work prior to that would have already known this.

Sir!: In the course of my research, I've watched several videos of you wearing a hat that says Jucana Jamaica, which appears to be some sort of posh weed growing operation in the Caribbean. Is it just really good or is this paid promotion?

Alfie Allen: [laughs] No, you know what it was? I was [in Jamaica] celebrating – me, my daughter and some other family members. I got chatting to a guy and he said his family owned a farm up in the mountains, and asked if we wanted to go. They had loads of vegetables, loads of amazing herbs, and all kinds of herbal medicine, including marijuana. I don't partake, but it was nice to go up there and have my kids see all these amazing vegetables and fruits and all the other stuff they grow there. So yeah, it wasn't paid promotion – I just like the hat.Sir!: Last year you played Timothy McVeigh, the perpetrator of the Oklahoma City bombing. What was it like preparing for that as a British actor, getting into the mindset of a very specifically American style of extremism?

AA: To be honest with you, the script itself was pretty sparse. We wanted it to be sort of still, and not really focusing on anything else other than the characters in it. Mike Ott [writer and director], said that one of the main reasons for making it was, in terms of the way the world is going and the way people are running countries, that's the kind of direction a lot of governments seem to be leaning towards sadly. Those people who committed that horrific crime, those people are now making decisions in higher positions in life.

Sir!: You've worked with some quite varied directors. Are there any that stick out as favourites, or have helped you along more than others?

AA: Someone I really love working with is Matthew Dunster, who I did a Martin McDonagh play called Hangmen with on Broadway. I recently did a Patrick Marber play called Dealer's Choice with him as well. The great thing about Matthew is he just sort of lets you kind of figure it out. Of course he’ll step in and go, “no, that’s shit, do it another way.” But most of the time he just sort of leads you down the right path. I just try to do what a director wants me to do. I've been blessed actually in terms of not really having any kind of bad experiences with directors. Every director I've worked with, it's been pretty smooth sailing.

Sir!: You mentioned your role in the Marber play Dealer’s Choice. Poker seems to be quite a big thing among actors, especially the sort of famous actors who've got quite a lot of disposable income. Were you into the game before you started prepping for Dealer's Choice?

AA: Not at all. I didn't know a thing about it. I mean, that's what was great about doing Dealer's Choice was none of us knew anything about it. We were all really discovering it together, which was great – being able to all go through that process as equals. I did definitely go through a phase of really enjoying playing poker. I knew all the kinds of hands and what they all meant. It was so important to me during that play. And then the other day I kind of went, “oh fuck, I've forgotten quite a lot of what the hands actually mean.” So it would be nice to get back into another game.

Sir!: When you're building a character, what comes first? Is it the accent, like the movement, the physicality, or is it the internal kind of emotional world?

AA: I mean, accent is important for me. I'm a big music guy. I love my music and I do connect the two, in my mind anyway – accent and music, and musicality and tone, and pitch and where that takes you emotionally. Even though it can be torturous, it’s just repetition, repetition, repetition: just saying things over and over again and seeing where that takes you. With the internal, emotional side of it – I think that's all about the energy on the day, you know? For me it is anyway. I've worked with other actors who can just switch it on, but I'm not one of them. It either happens or it doesn't, do you know what I mean? And that's been one of the most valuable pieces of advice I've actually been given when I was struggling on set. I was really trying to push myself to get somewhere, and I don't think that really produces the best results.

Sir!: Do you ever feel like the weight of having been part of a show like Game of Thrones, that is kind of one of these like era-defining shows? Has it changed how you pick roles now? Do you sort of maybe go for something that's more intimate and small in response to the scale of that?

AA: I don't know. I mean, I am just grateful to be working, to be honest. There was a big dry period around the strikes, which changes how you think about it. I did want to stay away from playing the more villainous roles after Game of Thrones, even though the character of Theon was not black or white, he was kind of in the middle somewhere.

Sir!: Has your distance from Game of Thrones now given you any different perspective on it? I think it’s fair to say that even now the response to how it ended is pretty vociferously negative.

AA: Look, I just know it must be incredibly hard to do, and it's probably quite a smart way of ending a show because then people are going to want to watch it from the beginning again so they can kind of get the good times back. So I would say, you know, I thought it was good [laughs].

Sir!: You’ve come a long way since your sister Lily wrote the derisory song ‘Alfie’ on her 2006 debut album Alright, Still. Did the song give you any impetus at all to not be permanently sealed in history as like an archetypal wasteman?

AA: I don't think so. It was more about just seeing Lily do her thing. And, you know, I think in hindsight, Lily probably regrets it a little bit. But it was a good song. It has a catchy melody. It stuck in people's heads. That's what her job as a songwriter is to do, you know? I was sitting around in my room smoking weed doing nothing. But then by the time the song came out I was in Canada teaching kids how to snowboard. I was already out of there exploring the world. But did it give me the impetus to come back and be an actor? No, I was already planning on doing that. It's just a part of my life that happened and we move on.

Sir!: Lastly, are Arsenal going to win the league?

AA: I think we might, I think we might. If there's ever a time that it might happen, even though we've been saying it for the past like two seasons – in fact, longer than that – it’s this time. I think once Havertz comes back and Gyökeres has got a little bit of competition there – we've just got squad depth. It looks really good. And it's basically a whole new team gelling. I think once Merino, Rice, and Zubimendi can get it going in the middle of the park [it’ll be great]. It’s pretty positive signs from the start of the season. We are playing okay, but we definitely haven't got going yet. I think we've got a chance.