Keira Knightley has described her role as spy Helen Webb in Netflix thriller Black Doves as her "Godfather moment," saying it is "nice to feel powerful."
The 41-year-old actress, speaking at a London hotel about the show's second season, said she loves the character because she is "as close as I'm ever going to get to a mafia boss."
A Powerful and Morally Ambiguous Role
"I love Helen. I think partly I love Helen because if I imagine the kind of character that I wanted to play as a teenager, Helen is it," Knightley told Metro. "I think she's as close as I'm ever going to get to a mafia boss, and I was totally obsessed with The Godfather when I was a teenager."
She added: "I'm like, this is my Godfather moment. I love that she's as powerful as she is. I love the moral ambiguity of her, and that she's rock hard."
Knightley, who is currently starring in the West End play The Lives of Others, continued: "As far as a person that I would quite like to be, not really, but kind of, but aren't. You know? She's fun. I like inhabiting her. She makes me feel very powerful, which is nice. It's nice to feel powerful. It doesn't happen very often. It's nice."
Season 2 Plot and New Characters
Season two of Black Doves picks up during an intense time in Helen Webb's life. Her husband Wallace (Andrew Buchan) is about to become the Prime Minister. Wallace is aware that Helen previously had an affair, but he does not know that his wife has been a Black Dove agent since they met, passing information from inside No 10 to her boss, Reed (Sarah Lancashire).
The series focuses on espionage and contracted killers, but friendship lies at its heart, particularly the bond between Helen and Sam (Ben Whishaw), her best friend who takes people out for money.
The season opens with an adrenaline-racing sequence introducing a new character, Laila, played by Ambika Mod. Seconds after meeting Helen, Laila quips: "I'm the muscle, babe," and constantly calls her a "spy wife," much to Helen's ire.
Mod, 31, said of her character: "Some of the lines sound so deranged, you'd think they were ad libs, but that's genuinely just Joe's brain, and I love it. She was just really clear on the page. To be honest, I didn't actually do that much prep, or think too deeply about it. When I first read some scenes with her before I was cast, she just felt so clear from the page, and that's kind of what made me want to do it."
Action and Character Depth
Knightley and Whishaw got their wish for a fight scene together in season two. "We got to do a fight sequence together in season two," said Knightley, who also relished getting to kick a stuntman out of a window. "So we had to learn that and do that together, which is what we'd wanted in season one, and we got our wish."
Whishaw added: "We learnt it on the day, maybe the day before," to which Knightley said: "But maybe that bonded us even more."
The anarchic assassin duo Eleanor (Gabrielle Creevy) and Williams (Ella Lily Hyland) are back with more depth. "In season one, we kind of came in and just messed around slightly – respectfully – and caused chaos," Gabrielle said. "But this season, it's been a gift."
Ella added: "They're so humanised. It's very hard to not have empathy for anyone when you really humanise them, because we all relate to the full spectrum of human emotions. It's so fun to play that complexity."
Black Doves seasons 1 and 2 are streaming on Netflix.
