VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: Gabriel Leone & Flávio Tolezani Reflect On Real-Life Criminals Behind ‘Dom’

Dom stars Gabriel Leone and Flávio Tolezani revealed the real-life stories behind their characters in their new uInterview.

The series follows the real-life story of teen cocaine user turned criminal kingpin Pedro Dom and his father Victor, who was a police officer who worked to try to stop crime and drugs in Rio de Janeiro.

“Pedro Dom, well he lived in the early 2000s mainly in Rio de Janeiro and he was a criminal that was very famous,” Leone told uInterview Founder Erik Meers via a translator. “He was well known to the press. He used to rob rich houses, mansions, and what really brought your attention to him was that he broke the stereotype of what you understand as a thief. He was from a middle-class family, he was described as good looking, and he had a playboy look even … and he was murdered very young in very few years by the police.”

“Pedro is, to me, a character that is fascinating because he has that dark side that comes from the chemical dependency and the relationship with the criminal world, but there is the opinion of his dad and many people that I’ve known all throughout this process,” Leone said, “especially when we filmed on location, the places that Pedro lived and spent most of his life, and I heard reports about Pedro, people missed him, describing him as charismatic and captivating.”

Tolezani plays Pedro’s father, Victor, who became a cop after he witnessed the introduction of cocaine into Brazil in the 70s while he was working as a secret agent for the country’s drug enforcement administration.

“A great deal of his life was moved by this war on drugs, war on crimes,” Tolezani said via a translator. “And then after a lot of frustration and he realized his fight was almost lost because of the state structure being completely corrupted and corruption really ended any possibility of having success in this war. His son had contact with cocaine and he becomes an addict, and his chemical dependency really makes the whole family lose its structure and it hinders the relationship between father and son.”

Tolezani said that the most challenging part of making the show was highlighting the connection between father and son even in their fight scenes.

“You can see conflicts, you can see fights, real fights,” he explained, “but we could not at any point since the preparation and throughout the all the recording we really focused, Gabriel and I, that what really permeated the relationship is love. So behind all the conflict there is love between father and son because otherwise they could just be enemies, and at no point they were enemies. They never gave up on each other.”

Dom premieres on Amazon Prime Video on June 4.