Keira Knightley covered in brains

SPOILER ALERT: This article contains major spoilers from “Black Doves” Season 1, now streaming on Netflix.

Keira Knightley may be taking Mariah Carey’s crown as the Queen of Christmas with her latest project, “Black Doves,” which hit Netflix this week. The London-based spy thriller opens with a jolly Santa Claus singing in a pub and ends six episodes later on Christmas Day, cementing the actor’s repertoire of Christmas projects, which include “Love, Actually,” “Silent Night” and “The Nutcracker and the Four Realms.” “

In “Black Doves,” Knightley plays the politician’s wife and secret spy Helen, who works for a shadowy corporate organization called Black Doves. But when Helen’s lover Jason (played by Andrew Koji) dies, she finds herself embroiled in an intricate geopolitical web that threatens to destroy not only her own life, but also start World War III. The series also stars Ben Whishaw as Helen’s best friend and fellow spy Sam, Sarah Lancashire as Black Doves boss Mrs Reed and Omari Douglas as Sam’s ex-boyfriend Michael.

Ahead of the premiere of “Black Doves,” showrunner Joe Barton sat down with Black to break down the nail-biting season finale, what to expect from Season 2, and whether the series will stick around for a Christmas release.

Where did the idea for “Black Doves” come from?

I just love things set for Christmas. I’m a big Christmas movie fan, also big (on) Christmas TV. I love when shows have their one Christmas episode. “ER” always had a good one. “The West Wing” always had a good one. So I always wanted to do it, but it was actually difficult. The first script I wrote in the intervening week – I started on Boxing Day, finished it on New Year’s Day – so I was sort of properly consumed by Christmas. Then obviously time goes on and I remember sitting with Chris Fry, one of the producers, in April or something like that… and we were both just like, “What are you doing for Christmas?” It goes out of your mind so quickly that you completely forget about it.

There is a scene where Eleanor (Gabrielle Creevy) and Kai-Ming (Isabella Wei) are tied up talking about their favorite Christmas movies. Did you consider referencing “Love, Actually”?

Yes, apparently I did 100%. But I thought it would be too meta. But I have a real soft spot for “Love, Actually.”

How early did Keira come on board?

She was with me from literally day one, so from that point I wrote to her. I think she was always really perfect for the character… It feels like a slight departure for her, but I think she’s really good at playing characters that are limited by the public’s perception of what they should be, even though it’s like, Elizabeth Bennet (in “Pride & Prejudice”) or her character in “Pirates”. of the Caribbean” or “Reconciliation”. These characters are caught up in the public facing aspect of their lives, but underneath the surface is this inner turmoil, which is essentially what Helen is as well, but just overtly in a more contemporary setting and with other genre pieces on top of that, action and stuff like that.

The moment Sam shows up in Helen’s life, kills an assassin and leaves blood all over her face is quite striking. Did that scene play out the way you envisioned it?

That moment was about bringing Sam and Helen back together and trying to do it in a fun, shocking way. He comes in and saves her, and it’s like fireworks—this guy who’s her best friend, who she hasn’t seen in years, is right back, and it’s a literally explosive moment. But it was weird because it’s kind of the most violent moment in the show and we had a lot of conversations about that because there’s more violence later on, but there’s nothing as gory as that. And then we thought, is it consistent with the rest of it? But we kept it just because it was such a startling image – Keira Knightley covered in brains. And then later, there’s another one where she’s heavily pregnant and she shoots a guy and gets splattered with blood again. But then again, that moment encapsulated the whole show: home life, spy life, motherhood, murder. You have everything in one image. The first time she gets properly sprayed, I actually didn’t think it would be quite as much as that.

Why does Helen hesitate in the season finale when deciding whether to kill Trent, and ultimately why is Sam the one to fire the gun?

It was about who she really is and if she wanted to do this. It was about this moral question of whether to kill this young man. Obviously, a big part of Sam’s backstory is that he refused to kill a kid, younger than this guy, but still, they’re both young, and it’s about who is Helen? What is she really willing to do and what is the emotional toll of it? Then, of course, Sam steps in and does it for her, taking on the emotional burden of killing this young man and also the external threat of him being the one to do it, he’ll see the consequences. In episode 3, you see Helen almost get away when she’s pregnant, she’s about to leave the Black Doves, but then she gets pulled back into it because she shows up, in that stairwell scene, to save Sam and get Michael out of there. So he feels a real burden of debt to her. And again, it goes back to the fact that it’s all about their friendship and the sacrifices they’re willing to make for each other.

Do you think Jason really loved Helen? Mrs Reed’s revelation that he lied about her to MI5 suggests he did.

Yes, I do. I think in the same way that Helen’s relationship with Wallace kind of changed into something, I feel like, Jason, he investigated her, but I think he really fell in love with her and she made him. So I think that relationship was real. He actually lied and got her out of trouble. And before he is killed, she is the one he calls. I think those feelings are really real and if he hadn’t been killed maybe he would have come clean and told her he was investigating her.

How far along are you in writing Season 2 and where will it go – will we learn more about her backstory?

We are still early in the process. I’m still writing the first episode and we’re kind of feeling our way through it. We filmed some flashbacks that didn’t make the final cut, of young Helen and her stepfather and her sister Bonnie. I think it would be really interesting to find out more about. With the second series, I think it’s quite interesting to discover more about the characters and Sarah’s character. We know quite a bit about Sam, but there’s always more. And just the possibility of opening the scope a little bit, but it’s all kind of TBC at the moment.

Will it be set for Christmas again?

It is about when it will be released. It doesn’t have to be limited by the Christmas holidays. So it could be that there is another (holiday) – maybe Easter?

I don’t think it necessarily always (be Christmas), which I’m quite sad about, because I love writing things that are set at Christmas. There’s a part of me that wants to be like, “Yeah, let’s always do it for Christmas!” But it also drove everyone a little crazy to be stuck in a permanent Christmas mode for six or seven months. So in editing, I mean, we listened to “Good King Wenceslas” in July. And I don’t know if you want to put people through that again.

This interview has been edited and condensed for space and clarity.