ELLE Exclusive: Sophie Turner And Archie Madekwe On Friendship Under Fire In 'Steal'

In most thrillers, the chaos usually belongs to masterminds, criminals who’ve planned every move, or detectives who stay ten steps ahead. Steal  on Prime Video flips that fantasy on its head. Set against the glass-and-steel anonymity of a London office, the series poses a far more unsettling question: what happens when ordinary people are pushed into extraordinary decisions, with no training, no preparation, and no escape?

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At the centre of this high-octane heist drama are Sophie Turner and Archie Madekwe, playing Zara and Luke, best friends, colleagues, and unwilling participants in a crime that puts billions of pounds of ordinary people’s pensions at risk. When a typical workday collapses into violence and uncertainty, it isn’t bravado or brilliance that gets them through, but fear, instinct, humour, and an unshakeable bond. Off-screen, that same ease and chemistry shape Turner and Madekwe’s collaboration, something that was evident even before the two ever met.

ELLE India sat down with the duo to discuss trust, tension, and why Steal feels uncomfortably close to real life.

“I was so excited there was Archie,” Turner says, laughing. “I just think he’s such a phenomenal actor. Even before meeting him, from watching his interviews and his work, I knew we were going to get along. I thought it was going to be a delight working with him.” She pauses, then adds mischievously, “And then I met him — and it was all a lie.”

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The joke lands easily, the kind that only works when there’s genuine affection underneath. Madekwe is quick to volley it back. “I was so excited to work with Sophie too. We had a bunch of mutual friends who spoke so highly of her. And then we just clicked hard. It was just so fun.”

That ease is at the heart of Steal, a contemporary, high-stakes thriller that places ordinary people in extraordinary danger. Turner plays Zara, an office worker at a London pension fund whose routine workday spirals into chaos when violent thieves storm the building. Madekwe plays Luke,  her best friend, emotional support system, and fellow hostage,  a character whose humour and panic coexist in equal measure. For Turner, one of the biggest draws of the series was its immediacy. “I’ve not really done anything that’s so modern-day,” she says. “And filming in the city that I call home made it feel very real.”

She reflects on how often projects take actors far away. “So much of the time, you’re off somewhere else, in a land far, far away or in a distant time. This felt like a life I could recognise and have lived, except for the office work part,” she adds with a grin. “And because of that, the extreme circumstances felt even more violating.”

That sense of realism also shaped how Turner approached Zara,  a woman who, by her own admission, does not have her life together. “Playing someone who doesn’t have her shit together at all, on any level, was incredibly freeing,” she says. “It’s not something I’ve fully explored before. She’s messy and emotional, and that felt honest.”

Madekwe echoes that sentiment when speaking about Luke. “I loved his humour and his wit,” he says. “But I also loved his thoughtlessness. He shoots from the hip. He’s a panicker. He hasn’t thought any of this through,  and that felt human to me.” Luke’s impulsive decision-making places him in morally grey territory at times, something Madekwe was keen to explore without judgement. “It’s an alien situation for him,” he explains. “He’s treading water, trying to stay afloat, grasping at anything that might keep him alive or make it end quicker.”

Those choices, he insists, come at a cost. “Sometimes the decisions he makes are morally questionable, but I think they’re deeply human. He’s not without guilt. It costs him emotionally. He’s acting out of desperation, doing what he can to survive.”

As the two actors bounce off each other with easy humour, it’s clear that what audiences will see on screen mirrors what unfolded off it: trust, instinct, and a shared understanding of what it means to play people pushed to their limits.

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