ride

When SUGA: Ride or Die premiered on Amazon Prime Video on September 4, 2025, audiences were introduced to Kane, a volatile yet deeply human antagonist brought to life by Irish actor Robbie Walsh. Set against a world of crime, grief, and fractured loyalty, the series captured an unflinching portrait of survival, and at its core stood Walsh’s hauntingly restrained performance.

Kane is described as “a lunatic who walks the line between family devotion and survival,” a role Walsh approached with calculated duality. “I leaned into that contradiction. Kane can be brutal one minute and deeply protective the next. For me, the key was treating his violence and his loyalty as the same instinct, survival. He’ll do anything for family, but that same drive makes him dangerous.”

This moral ambiguity drew Walsh to the part. “He’s unpredictable. I’ve played fighters, villains, survivors before, but Kane has this quiet madness to him. He’s not looking for approval, he’s not trying to fit in, he’s just this force that arrives and unsettles everything.”

Unlike the show’s title character, Suga, Kane isn’t a biker, and that outsider status was key to Walsh’s portrayal. “That difference is everything. Kane doesn’t need the leather or the patch to prove who he is. He’s an outsider in their world, and that makes him more threatening, he’s not bound by their codes. He walks in on his own terms.”

That independence gives Kane an unpredictable edge, one that makes him both an adversary and mirror to Suga. “There’s definitely a respect there, but respect doesn’t mean mercy. Kane respects strength, and Suga has it, but that doesn’t stop him from seeing him as an obstacle. Kane understands the family situation but Kane’s family comes first before anyone.”

Walsh admits he’s most drawn to the character’s loyalty, though it’s a loyalty laced with danger. “The loyalty, hands down. The ruthlessness is the mask, the loyalty is what makes him human, and it’s what makes him dangerous, too. Because when loyalty is tested, that’s when the monster shows up.”

For Walsh, the power of Kane lies in his stillness. “Silence is more powerful than shouting. I worked on holding stillness, letting Kane’s presence do the talking. If you believe the threat is real, you don’t need to announce it, it’s scarier when you don’t.”

Body language became the foundation of that menace. “It’s all in the eyes, the pace, the stillness. I treated Kane like a loaded gun, the less movement, the more tension. If he twitches, you know it means something.”

To bring authenticity to the role, Walsh drew from real Irish underworld influences. “Yeah, I definitely pulled from Irish gangland culture. I grew up around stories of those figures, the codes they live by, how family and violence are tied together. I did base Kane on the stories of one or two people, but they will remain nameless, those influences are in Kane’s DNA.”

Transforming into Kane meant shedding every trace of softness. “Physically, it was about how he carries himself, grounded, immovable. Emotionally, it was stripping away charm or softness. Kane doesn’t ask for sympathy, so I had to drop that instinct as an actor and just sit in his rawness.”

Working under directors Diederik Van Rooijen and Michiel van Jaarsveld challenged Walsh to balance intensity with restraint. “Diederik and Michiel were fantastic. They never wanted Kane to be one-note. They pushed me to find those quiet, unsettling beats instead of playing him loud. It was about restraint, they would feed me improved lines and we’d go for it, but they stuck to what they wanted and I’d work with them and the team again in a heartbeat, less performance, more presence.”

Even the multilingual nature of the set added to the experience. “It was wild in the best way. You’re switching between Dutch, Flemish, English, and it forces you to really listen, to connect beyond words. That fits the world of the show, too, because Kane is a man of few words. He fits right in.”

And like any gritty shoot, there were lighter moments too. “The Irish guy me & Johnny & the crew were on a night shoot, it was absolutely awesome to see the trucks, drones, guns, lights but we had to lie down for hours, as I joked with our directors and crew I said ‘this floor smells weird’ and our friends happily laughed ‘Robbie brother, if it looks like shit, smells like shit, feels like shit, guess what?’ We laughed for an hour ruining a take.”

Walsh believes SUGA: Ride or Die goes far beyond typical crime drama. “Because it’s human. It’s not about clichés or tropes, it’s about grief, family, loyalty, revenge, survival. People know those feelings, and when you set them against a crime backdrop, it hits even harder.”

And for Kane, that universality is what makes him stand out. “He’s not glamorous, he’s not stylized. Shows like Sons of Anarchy or Peaky Blinders have big worlds, Kane is stripped back. He’s not mythology, he’s menace. He doesn’t want to rule the world, he just wants his piece of it. But I truly believe with time he could be one of the great villains, a true hero will sacrifice his loved ones to save the world, but the great villains will sacrifice the world to save their loved ones. This is Kane.”

Asked to sum up Kane in three words, Walsh doesn’t hesitate, “Unpredictable, loyal, ruthless.”

With that combination, Robbie Walsh’s Kane is poised to become one of the defining antiheroes of the year, a reminder that sometimes silence, loyalty, and danger share the same pulse.