Keira Knightley on trading period drama for Black Doves: 'Playing a deadly assassin is much more my thing'

My Gen Z children aren’t often impressed by the people that I meet in my job. Today, though, is different. I’m talking to Keira Knightley. She’s regarded as extremely cool by young people for a number of reasons. One of them is because she was in Love Actually, the Richard Curtis 2003 Christmas film that became an unlikely Gen Z sleeper hit (more of which later). The other is thanks to her current role as a spy in Netflix’s British thriller Black Doves. This show is exciting, like a James Bond miniseries but much more irreverent, and stars a host of British legends alongside Knightley, including Bond veteran Ben Whishaw.

We speak as she’s in a car on the way to the West End for a technical rehearsal in her new project, a theatrical adaptation of another spy thriller, The Lives of Others, which is just about to open at the Adelphi Theatre. She’s not driving, however. “No,” she says drily. “That would be a bit much.” Maybe, but it would suit her character in Black Doves.

Danger is an everyday hurdle for Helen Webb, a ruthless spy who thinks nothing of shooting her way out of trouble and packing off assassins in her garden shed – and who just happens to be married to the prime minister. Not that he’s aware of her double life. He just sees her as a gorgeous accoutrement on his arm at Number Ten and mother to their two children.

“I’ve never played anyone who openly lies like this,” she giggles. “You are right at the centre of power, but as a prime minister’s wife, a bystander, which is a curious position to be in. Unless you have power over your husband. And if you are betraying someone, you are all-powerful. Helen looks powerless but she’s openly betraying her husband. And her morals are maybe nonexistent.”

Series two is about to drop; when Black Doves began last year, her role required a bit of a pivot from her fans. The number of times Knightley has played an immoral assassin is somewhat dwarfed by the number of times she’s been in a bonnet and hooped skirt, but the 41-year-old admits that playing a deadly assassin is, frankly, much more her thing. “It’s leaning into what I was desperate to do when I was a teenager. I would’ve been jumping for joy with such a role when I was younger.”

The series revels in using London as a glittering backdrop for espionage and violence, which suits Knightley down to the ground. “I love living in London but I hadn’t done much work where London is such an integral part. We wanted to catch its vibe and London is almost the main character in it.”

I don’t think I have played someone whose whole life is a lie

Maybe, but this is Knightley’s show, whether she’s shooting her way out of Somerset House or picking a safe in a billionaire’s Parisian flat (and then shooting her way out). She also did most of the stunts herself. “I had stopped doing stunts when I was younger, because I got scared. Guns scared me. But I’m older now, and I know what I need on set. Anyway, I have always enjoyed sporty stuff.”

Football, obviously (2002’s Bend It Like Beckham was her breakout role). Running? Er, no. “I absolutely loathe running. My cardiovascular fitness is terrible. I make myself do it, but I’m not a fan. It’s very annoying because my husband’s fitness is amazing and he’s so much better than me. I’m very competitive.”

Could she be a spy? “No. I’m watching The Traitors at the moment and you know, I think I would be like Richard E Grant.” She begins laughing. “Just admitting I was a Traitor! I couldn’t! I was chatting to my kids about it the other night and they were asking whether I might be in it, because obviously every child wants their parent to be in Traitors, and we all decided I would be absolutely awful. If I was a Faithful and someone said, ‘It’s you!’ and they all went against me, I would get emotional and cry. And if I was a Traitor I would admit it, like Richard did.”

She’s fascinated by acting as a Traitor, however. “I love the idea, particularly when you become a mother and you wear many different faces. You are all maternal to your children, and yet maybe you had quite a hedonistic past, which has to be suppressed. I have a different face in my working life than I do in my home life, or at the school gate. However, I don’t think I have played someone whose whole life is a lie. That is different from someone whose life is trapped by circumstance, like Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice,” she says, mentioning her Oscar-nominated role in the 2005 movie.

Will she be watching the new Netflix version of the Austen classic? “I’m so excited about this! I haven’t showed my children the old one because I’m in it. They never want to watch anything I’m in, understandably, because that would be weird, but I’m so excited to show my 11-year-old the new version, because I think she will love it.”

One thing that won’t be on the children’s watchlist any time soon is Black Doves. “My children? No, no. They are 11 and seven! And anyway they are definitely not interested in watching me. ‘We don’t want to watch you pretending,’ they say, ‘It’s weird!’ That will be their stand forever and that’s OK with me.”

But they must be aware that their mother is a huge star? How do they behave when she’s approached by fans? “I’m quite good at getting out of it. I tend to think that if I’m with my kids, it’s my kids’ time. And I’m quite cut and dried about when it’s my kids’ time and when I’m working. People are super respectful when you are with your children, they totally get it.”

I tell her that her performance in Love Actually is big with people in their 20s. She laughs graciously. “Lots of people ask me about that film, so I know it continues on, but it’s amazing because it didn’t do that well when it came out. It has a life of its own.”

And with that, she jumps out of the car and into the theatre, ready for her next challenge.