I wanted to do stuff that was about words, says Knightley.
Also, when youre doing action films, generally speaking, it takes a long time.
Shes well interesting enough.
Netflix’s ‘Black Doves’ was made by SisterNetflix/Ludovic Robert
Did that give you a different sense of ownership of the project?
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KEIRA KNIGHTLEY:It does give you a different sense of ownership.
When you dont know where youre going, it could go anywhere.
Ben Whishaw and Keira Knightley in ‘Black Doves’Ludovic Robert/Netflix
And I was super excited when I got this script from Joe, because, well, shes weird.
What did that alone tell you about what you were delving into?
I think she does love her husband.
I think she is a great hostess.
I think she is a great mother.
I think she is a great friend.
Its just that shes also betraying them all, all the time.
Its juicy, and it leads to so many question marks.
Who is the person that loves their husband, and yet is betraying them all the time?
And what is the power dynamic within that relationship when thats the truth?
I just found her a fascination.
DEADLINE:Are you a fan of the spy genre in general?
KNIGHTLEY:I do like it.
I love a John Le Carre novel.
I love the kind of melancholia that they can have.
Theres a loneliness to them.
I watchedSmileys Peopleagain, quite recently, and God, its so sad, the cost of the deception.
Theres the pure entertainment side.
Shes the hero, but shes definitely the anti-hero.
She sits in a very strange space.
She is a mercenary.
She doesnt have a higher calling.
Her higher calling is herself.
The ego that takes is interesting.
Ones an undercover spy who kills people and the other ones an assassin on a murderous rampage for revenge.
And yet they really love each other.
Theyve got this extraordinary friendship where they can be themselves together.
That, in itself, is quite a strange thing at the center of this spy genre.
KNIGHTLEY:I loved all the scenes between her and Sam.Ben Whishawwas the dream come true.
When Joe Barton and I first met about this, I said, Whod you see as Sam?
And we both went, Ben Whishaw.
And when he said yes, it was just like, Oh, this is going to be heaven.
That friendship is really what makes the whole thing.
Theyre kind of pithy and constantly bickering at each other, but theres that real love between them.
Partly because theyre both desperate for it, and they cannot have it because theyre deceiving everyone else.
But theyre not deceiving each other.
I found it really sad, and quite poignant.
DEADLINE:What was it about Ben that made you immediately think he was perfect for it?
KNIGHTLEY:I think hes one of the most extraordinary actors working today.
He can play lovable and psychotic within a blink of the eye.
There are very few people that can pull that off.
He has an energy that is only his.
Ive never seen anyone else with the same energy.
The fact that hes in Bond, but hes playing Q. I mean, hes normally the nice guy.
Hes Paddington for Gods sake, but hes a psycho killer.
Whats better than that?
DEADLINE:Do you feel like Helen is slightly less psychotic?
You see, we were constantly having this conversation of, Are they psychopaths?
And, actually, we came to the conclusion that shes worse than he is.
Is that what she is?
Shes betraying everybody for nothing other than her own financial gain.
So, shes got no morals.
DEADLINE:Surely, well delve into more trauma in Season 2?
Its certainly hinted at.
KNIGHTLEY:Its got to be from trauma, right?
We discussed the backstories of both of them a lot.
And you get bits of it in [Season 1].
But yeah, theres got to be one serious rupture.
I think the relationship with the husband is fascinating because she does love him.
But shes betraying him.
Now, its a power dynamic because theyre politicians.
Its a political couple.
So, they want to be close to the center of power, and she wants to be.
Thats a fascinating dynamic in a couple.
Where does that go?
So, ego comes into it as well.
KNIGHTLEY:Yeah, but I think thats what parenthood is.
I mean theyre very different personalities that all of us have within us.
And what I really enjoyed about the character, was that you’re free to identify with her.
Obviously, shes more extreme, but we all have that in us.
My face to my children is not the one that my mates see at the pub.
And yet those two things are true.
With her, all of these different faces are true.
They just happened to be completely contradictory.
DEADLINE:How did you take to action choreography?
KNIGHTLEY:I really enjoyed it.
I did quite a lot of it in my late teens, early 20s.
And then I hadnt wanted to touch it for ages.
And it was really fun going back to it.
We did lots of boxing, Filipino knife fighting and jiu-jitsu.
Yeah, it was really fun.
DEADLINE:Why did you step away from it, and what did you miss about it?
KNIGHTLEY:I wanted to do drama.
I wanted to do more serious stuff.
I wanted to do stuff that was about words.
Also, when youre doing action films, generally speaking, it takes a long time.
It tends to take weeks and weeks and weeks, and youre doing tiny pieces.
It didnt do it for me.
Or it did and then it didnt.
There was no hanging about.
And for my brain, not being bored is important.
So, the speed of it, I really enjoyed.
I remember, on all thePiratesfilms, I loved working with the stunt teams.
Theyre always so extraordinary and physically amazing.
It was really fun to have a group of amazing stunt men and women to work with, again.
DEADLINE:And to be fair, Joes words are kind of amazing, too.
And to get that melancholic texture in it, while its also very funny.
There are very few writers that can tread that line successfully.
Its a tight rope that he can walk.
DEADLINE:Other than the action, were there unique challenges to this that you didnt see coming?
KNIGHTLEY:The fact that we only had two scripts when we started.
It was very much written on the go.
And it wasnt like we did it in order.
So, we really didnt know where we were going.
But Joe kept writing different things for the backstory.
So that kept changing as well.
And also the speed.
I mean, [we did] two, three takes, max.
A lot of it is done in one take.
Me and Ben were like, Okay, were playing jazz.
This is my instinct meeting your instinct, and lets see what we end up with.
And were going to see what happens.
We did have fun, but it was very scary.
DEADLINE:Working with multiple directors, I assume thats not something you typically do.
What was that like?
KNIGHTLEY:I think its my first time that Ive ever done it.
It was really curious.
I mean, we were really lucky.
It was Alex [Gabassi] and then Lisa [Gunning], and they were both fabulous.
She made it wonderful, and very easy, and she just brought a whole new kind of dynamic.
It was like doing a whole new job.
DEADLINE:How so?
Because the show feels continuous.
Theyre the people that its all coming from.
Not better or worse, just completely different.
It was a really interesting experience.
Black Dovesis streaming onNetflixnow.
