Can Fightland's Cece And Zeek Work Together To Keep Kingsley's Empire Afloat? Anita-Joy Uwajeh And Charles Babalola Weigh In On Who's Dad's Favorite

Cebella "Cece" Marshall has a shrewd head for business. Her brother, Ezekiel "Zeek" Marshall, has a penchant for spectacle necessary to succeed in the fight-promotion business. And while their father, Kingsley Marshall, remains missing in action in this week's "Fightland," you'd think the siblings might consider working together to keep the family boxing biz (and its seedier underside) afloat, right?

You'd consider wrong, bruv. Or, as Charles Babalola, who plays Zeek, tells TVLine: "There's only room for one big dog."

I sat down with Babalola ("Black Mirror") and Anita-Joy Uwajeh. ("Vampire Academy"), who plays Cece, on the show's London set to talk about the Marshall family's complicated — to put it mildly — dynamics.

TVLINE | Who's Kingsley's favorite here?
CHARLES BABALOLA | Come on. 
ANITA-JOY UWAJEH | It's me. [Laughs] 
BABALOLA | I would like to say it's me, but annoyingly...
UWAJEH | He doesn't really have favorites, but if he's gonna have one, it's me. 
BABALOLA | But she's a teacher's pet though, so you know.
UWAJEH | No, not really.

TVLINE | Do you think that's been a dynamic for your characters their whole lives? When do you think that started for them?
BABALOLA | For me, I feel like definitely in the early part of our life, there was a lot of things my father wanted me to do which I couldn't. I could potentially be a boxer, potentially be Duke, right? But I couldn't live up to that expectation. But then, as the years have gone on, [Marshall has] just warmed to Cece.
UWAJEH | "Warmed" is a strong word. But yeah, he's definitely de-iced a bit. Similarly to you, I think Cece wouldn't have been his natural choice. I think it would have been Zeek, his natural choice. I think he's very much like, "My son takes over. My son is the person that I give this kingdom to and hopefully runs the boxing promotion company or becomes a boxer himself." But I think once Kingsley realizes — and probably quite early on — that Zeek isn't quite the son that he would like him to be, I think he's sort of jumped ship. And he's like, "Well, it's Cece." She's the one that actually will potentially do something and make something of this business and outside of his own shadow.

TVLINE | I'm going to throw a wrench in this: When I asked Nicholas Pinnock the same question, he said that Marshall's favorite is Duke. Do you think your characters discern that?
CHARLES BABALOLA | Definitely, Zeek sees that growing up. There's a lot of stuff that happens before the series starts, you know. Duke has been around our family for a long time whilst we were growing up. Zeek has seen him in a boxing gym, seen him being a world champion — and I've also seen how what my father's rapport is with him, alright? Zeek definitely sees that and wonders why that is, wonders what he can do to be like Duke.
UWAJEH | It's interesting that Nicholas said that, because Duke isn't [Marshall's] child, as much as he might want him to be. There is an element of Kingsley that would have liked Duke to have been, particularly the son that he kind of never had. As audiences watch the series, they will see that also Cebella is actually very aware of that. She is aware of the disappointment that Kingsley has, unfortunately, particularly in Zeek, and sometimes in her. And the joy he gets from being around Duke, particularly when he is a very successful boxer.

TVLINE | Correct me if I'm wrong, but I get the sense that if your two characters could figure out how to work together, they'd complement each other in a lot of ways, right? Do you think there's a way they could get to a place where they're running the company together as opposed to working against each other?
UWAJEH | I think if both of them could accept the positions that they're in. One is the president, one is the vice president.

TVLINE | We're not gonna say who's who.
UWAJEH | [Smiles as Babalola smirks] Actually, I think they could really work together. I think you're right. I think they could allow each other to be what they are and and play their roles to the fullest. But because they don't, they're not able to do that. They're constantly butting heads and trying to cover each other's mistakes or or mishaps. But yeah, if they could accept what their role is in this world, in this system, I think they could be an absolutely powerful force.
BABALOLA | It's ego, you know. Ego plays a big part. Again, they've seen Dad, their whole lives, be the big dog by himself — be a man who commands such heavy status, right? I felt, doing it, when you've grown up around someone like that, you wanna be that person. And there is only room for one big dog.