Keeley Hawes has revealed that her role in Prime Video's comic thriller The Assassin has left her with "quite dark thoughts". The actor, known for Spooks, Ashes to Ashes, The Durrells and Line of Duty, is back for the show's second series.
Hawes plays Julie, a contract killer forced out of retirement when ghosts from the past threaten her and her estranged son Edward, played by Freddie Highmore. The 50-year-old told the Radio Times that the experience of filming affected her.
"I do have really quite dark thoughts about people that perhaps I didn't have before – like if someone's on a video call on the train. That could also be my age. But I'm blaming Julie as well," she said.
Empowering role for Hawes
Hawes, who turned 50 earlier this year, said it was empowering to play "a perimenopausal James Bond", as her character is described by her on-screen son. She praised the show's writers, Harry and Jack Williams, saying: "It's written by two middle-aged men, and they get it. In terms of the big set pieces, I'm having a ball. Julie's a bit fitter this series, so there's less groaning when I get up off the ground. But she's no gym bunny. I'm still a woman in my 50s."
Season one of The Assassin was primarily shot in Greece, specifically Athens, where the cast faced sweltering temperatures during filming. Hawes, who is married to Succession star Matthew Macfadyen, also spoke about the physical demands of the role.
"This is some of the biggest stunt work that I've ever done," she revealed.
Season 2 plot and release
In season one, Edward discovered that Julie, who raised him, was not his birth mother and had taken him in after killing his father on a job. The synopsis for season 2 says: "Hitwoman Julie and Edward reluctantly team up once again, when Edward's dream honeymoon with Kayla is hijacked by the arrival of a mysterious new threat."
"Plunged back into a world of international crime, kidnapping and high-speed car chases, to survive the job and mend an already fragile relationship, they'll have to take down Spain's corrupt underworld… and hopefully not each other first."
The Assassin season 2 releases on Prime Video on Friday, November 6. The full interview with Hawes and Freddie Highmore appears in this week's Radio Times.
