Who needs a stocking stuffer when you can watch Keira Knightley deck the halls with bullets and mayhem in the Christmas-set thriller Black Doves? 

From creator, writer, and executive producer Joe Barton (Giri/Haji, The Lazarus Project), Black Doves — now streaming on Netflix — is Knightley’s first TV role since the 2002 mini-series Doctor Zhivago. The English actor stars as Helen, a professional spy who’s pulled into a vast, interconnected conspiracy alongside her assassin friend Sam (Ben Whishaw) when her secret lover Jason (Andrew Koji) is murdered. 

After making her mark as an action heroine with films like Pirates of the Caribbean, King Arthur, and 2014’s Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, the actor found it “very exciting” to leap back into combat with Black Doves.

“It was amazing how that whole muscle memory thing, it was really still in there,” Knightley tells Tudum. “Now being a bit older, it didn’t freak me out as much. I hadn’t done it in ages, so it was really nice to just get back into that side of [performing].”

Keep reading for our full debriefing with Knightley on those stellar fight sequences, the character she really wants to kill, her hopes for Season 2, and more. 

Photographs by Dan Jackson

A key part of the series is Helen and Sam’s dysfunctional yet loving dynamic. What was it like working with Ben Whishaw and building that relationship on-screen?
We really get on, which was just thrilling. It was really lovely to play off our natural chemistry and build that relationship that way. 

Saying that, it was all on the page. Those scenes were actually the most set from the beginning. I think Joe could always really see what that friendship was, so it was the most solid thing that we had to go on. It worked for the whole piece because that is the most solid relationship that they have in their lives. It was lovely that that was actually true in the making of it as well.

You see that throughout the series, and it feels very natural.
I’m hoping in Season 2 we [get] more scenes together. That was our big thing. We were like, “But we only ever get to meet up when we’re chatting in the car or over the phone, so can you please put us together a bit more?”

You did some martial arts training for Black Doves. Can you talk a little bit about the preparation for the physical aspects of this role?
I was working with Sarah, who was the stunt coordinator, and [fight coordinator Rob Cooper], who trained me. It was all mixed martial arts. We started off with boxing, and then he did bits of jujitsu and bits of Filipino knife-fighting stuff. He was really amazing because what he was really doing was seeing how my body moved, and then they created fights around how they thought I naturally moved.

We didn’t have very long. We had a month of maybe two to three sessions a week, and I had to learn the choreography. When we shot it, it was one day [for] each fight scene, which is nothing. On a film, a minimum of three days to a week would be pretty standard, so it was unbelievably quick. But they were absolutely brilliant, and I think it was partly because they were really looking at how I moved. They did cater it to make it as easy as possible for me, so that was great.

Ludovic Robert/Netflix

Helen’s fight with Dani in the jewelry shop in Episode 5 was brutal yet so fun. What do you remember most about preparing for that scene? 
Only that I kept saying to Joe that I should kill her. He was like, “You’re not allowed to kill her.” I was like, “She wants to fuck my husband. I should kill her.” I kept going. I’m still having the email conversation with him and going, “Dude, she tried to murder me on Christmas Eve. I should kill her.” He’s still not having it.

[Agnes O’Casey], who played Dani, was just great, so it was really nice rehearsing with her. That fight was the most solid that we had. Whereas the other two fights changed quite a lot because of the locations that we were shooting in, that final one was actually in a studio, so we could see what we’d prefer to do. 

Eleanor (Gabrielle Creevy) and Williams (Ella Lily Hyland) provide great comedic relief in the series. When did you first see the magic of that partnership? What is it about them that makes them such a dynamic pairing?
I feel like Joe had watched them a bit, [and] suddenly that dynamic between them grew because the actresses were so fucking great, and they just had that great rhythm. I think it developed as we were going along. The characters are fabulously weighted. It was a lovely tonal thing to have in there.

Let’s go back to Helen’s very unique job interview in Episode 2. What was it like filming that scene? What about it really stands out to you?
That was one of my favorite scenes to film because she’s such a strange creature. She’s going up to be a translator, but she’s suddenly questioned in this way — she’s put in a corner. She’s in central London and she gets exposed. You see Daisy before she becomes Helen. I find it interesting to create this much cooler, more reserved version of herself. 

The last two episodes of Season 1 weren’t finalized when you began filming, so when did you find out how the season actually ended?
About a month before we finished. I think the final shoot-out [in Episode 6], I was handed it two days before we shot it. … It was very much up in the air and moving. The [first four episodes] were set, but five and six were still in flux. We had a shape, and we had a direction, but exactly how we got there — it came into being as we were filming.

In the finale, there’s the reveal of Jason’s true identity. Did you always know who Jason really was, or did you not want to know so you’d be in the same headspace as Helen?
I would’ve liked to know, but I don’t think Joe properly knew. When we started, I was like, “Is he a spy?” and he was like, “No, no, no, no, no.” There was a point, because none of it was written, I was like, “Oh my God, is he still alive and he’s the Clark? Is that what’s happening here?” So I was finding out as Helen was finding out.

Throughout the series, there are some clues about Helen’s real life — like her mother’s lighter. How much of Helen’s backstory were you aware of while filming?
My big question at the beginning was, “Did she kill her father? Are we saying that she killed her father?” Joe was like, “Absolutely not. She absolutely didn’t kill her father.” She is a mystery, even to me.

Alex Gabassi, who directed Episodes 1–3, and I worked on it quite a lot between us to create her. We worked a lot on what that childhood might’ve been like and what that mother would’ve been like and all of the rest of it, in order to create the idea of the damage that has caused [her to become] the kind of person that she is. We will have to wait and see with Season 2 whether [Joe] goes into it any more.

Photograph by Dan Jackson

Twice now, Helen has come close to leaving the Black Doves only to be pulled back in. The first time was to protect Sam and Michael (Omari Douglas), so what compels her to stay the second time?
I think she’s addicted to the excitement of it. When it’s with Sam, she chooses to stay because she needs Reed (Sarah Lancashire) to clean up the mess, and then she gives herself another couple of years. But it’s a big thing to give up, even though she knows that she should, and she knows that she needs to get away. And also, the excitement and the importance of it. It’s a sense of identity, even though that identity is that you’re betraying your husband and your country the whole time. That’s a pretty powerful position that you put yourself in, so I can imagine that giving that up would be very tricky for her.

Do you think she’s still, in the back of her mind, eyeing an exit route?
I think she’s always eyeing an exit route, but that’s who she is. She’s always ready to run. Whatever that past is with her mother, I think she’s learned that she needs a bag packed and ready to go. She is ready to go, but equally, she would be the most important spy in the world if she pulls it off, and so her ego and her sense of self are very much tied up in the whole thing.

Also, she does love her husband, and she definitely doesn’t want anyone else to have him. I think you see that in the scene with Reed where she’s pregnant, and she’s saying she’s going to go because of the kids. Reed’s like, “Great, we’ll put somebody else in,” and she’s like, “What? I’m sorry, no.” She has a real sense of, “that’s mine,” and she wouldn’t like it if somebody else went in. That probably keeps her there as well.

Stefania Rosini/Netflix

Have you begun prepping work for Season 2? How far along in the process are you?I’m not anywhere in the process. I said to Joe, “OK, so what happens?” He was like, “Oh, stuff.” I was like, “Oh, OK. Cool. Are you going to tell me what the stuff is at any point?” But so far, I have absolutely no idea. Apart from that, I’ve got many emails between me and him, of me saying I must kill Dani and him, again, being a little elusive about whether I’m going to get to do that or not.

What do you hope to explore with Helen next season?
I am fascinated by [Helen and Wallace’s] marriage. Now, you have the fact that Wallace (Andrew Buchan) knows that an affair has happened or suspects that an affair has happened. I think he’s possibly going to be questioning Helen in a way that he’s never questioned her before. She’s going to be on display if he does become prime minister. She’s definitely on display and in danger in a way that she hasn’t been before because now Reed knows that she’s fucked up as well. 

Why do you think Black Doves is great for people to watch over the Christmas holiday?
I think it’s the anti-Christmas series, and we all need one. We need all the loving stuff. You can have Love Actually, and you can have the nice family-friendly ones, and then you need the one where it all explodes. Sometimes it’s quite intense to be at home with your family over Christmas, and you need a little escape route, and so Black Doves is your escape.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Stream Black Doves on Netflix now. 

Watch the Black Doves Season 1 Trailer