Keira Knightley’s character in “Love Actually” may no longer be her best-known holiday role. Her latest project, Netflix’s hit spy thriller “Black Doves,” involves its own Christmas twist. The series debuted on Dec. 5, and with a second season already confirmed, there’s no doubt that actors will want to get in on the action. But do you have what it takes to kick butt alongside Knightley?
In this guide, we’ll explore everything you need to know about the casting process behind “Black Doves,” including advice from the show’s talented stars and where Season 2 stands regarding development.
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Set in London during the days leading up to Christmas, “Black Doves” follows Helen Webb (Knightley), a professional spy who works for the titular organization. Though she’s a devoted wife and mother—even if she has been sharing her foreign secretary husband’s political secrets for 10 years—Helen finds her world turned upside down when her lover, Jason Davies (Andrew Koji), is murdered. Spymaster Reed (Sarah Lancashire) recruits Helen’s old friend, assassin Sam Young (Ben Whishaw), to protect her, throwing them into the thick of a geopolitical crisis threatening their lives and the world. As they try to find Jason’s killer, Helen and Sam must also untangle an intricate web of conspiracies and lies that make up the London underworld.
Season 1 of “Black Doves” features:
- Keira Knightley as Helen Webb
- Ben Whishaw as Sam Young
- Sarah Lancashire as Reed
- Andrew Buchan as Wallace Webb
- Andrew Koji as Jason Davies
- Omari Douglas as Michael
- Sam Troughton as Stephen Yarrick
- Ella Lily Hyland as Williams
- Isabella Wei as Kai-Ming
- Charlotte Rice-Foley as Jacqueline Webb
- Taylor Sullivan as Oliver Webb
- Gabrielle Creevy as Eleanor
- Molly Chesworth as Marie
- Ken Nwosu as Bill
- Kathryn Hunter as Lenny Lines
- Agnes O’Casey as Dani
- Finn Bennett as Cole Atwood
- Tai Yin Chan as Wu Lin
- Dan Li as Chang Hao
- Luther Ford as Hector Newman
- Tracey Ullman as Alex Clark
- Adeel Akhtar as Richard Eaves
- Paapa Essiedu as Elmore Fitch
Robert Sterne (“Game of Thrones,” “The Crown”) served as the main CD on Season 1 of “Black Doves.”
While the casting process isn’t an exact science—just because you’re not right for the role doesn’t mean you’re a bad actor—Sterne says there are surefire ways to make an impression that truly lasts.
“All the time, people come in and they’re brilliant—they’re just not right for that particular part. You start building up your relationship with their performances over a period of time, and you bring them in and you think: There’s something about you,” he told us. “And then we’ll try again. You have to work out what is the best part for them and try and make that happen.”
He added, “The things that really stand out are when actors have a real concentration that’s focused on what they’re doing and making decisions that they’ve really thought through in the scenes…. That is the thing that stands out: if people really do focus, and there’s a quality of concentration, of really thinking through why you’re doing your lines the way you’re doing it and making decisions. And then being able to discuss them and back up why you made those decisions is always pretty compelling.”
After creator Joe Barton wrote the first episode of “Black Doves,” he contacted Knightley in hopes she’d take on the role. While the actor’s known for tackling period dramas, like playing Elizabeth Bennet in “Pride & Prejudice,” Elizabeth Swann in “Pirates of the Carribean,” and Cecilia Tallis in “Atonement,” Barton told the Hollywood Reporter that those characters, at their core, reflect the Helen he wanted to bring to life onscreen—because they capture the inner turmoil of someone whose public persona remains at odds with their private desires. He said, “In [Knightley’s] work, she’s played women who society expects one thing of, but her heart is pushing another way with that sort of internal grappling.”
Whishaw, on the other hand, was cast “because he’s just got a sort of mix of soulfulness and humor,” Barton said, “and we thought there could be a really good chemistry between him and Keira, which luckily there was.”
Having been a performer himself, Sterne understands the unique pressure that comes with an audition in ways not all CDs understand. “You’ve got to be open to whatever the actor wants to bring in. The whole process of auditioning, there’s no relation to when you’re actually doing the job,” Sterne told us. “When you’re doing the job, you’ve had your preparation, you’re doing it with an actor—it’s so much to do with what happens between people. And the chemistry you get from the other actor coming back at you kind of informs what decisions you make.
“[In an audition,] you’re going into a completely false environment where you’ve got a camera pointing straight at you, you haven’t got another actor opposite you, and you’re kind of under a microscope. You have to do it, it’s part of the process, but it doesn’t bear much relation to what acting is about at its finest and free,” he continued. “I try and be as open as possible. At the same time, you’ve got to feel that [actors are] going to be brave in terms of offering up something that you have to accept and respond in kind. It’s about facilitating people to do what they need to do in that situation. I think having been on the other side of it really does help that. I just know what they’re going through.”
Though Netflix renewed “Black Doves” for Season 2 before the show even debuted, Barton has confirmed that they’re still only in the initial phases of development. “We’re still early in the process. I’m writing the first episode still, and we’re kind of feeling our way through it,” he told Variety. Therefore, no open casting calls are available at this time. As you await news of Season 2’s progress, you may want to study our guide on how to audition for Netflix and bookmark our main casting page for updates on the latest opportunities as they’re announced.
Don’t take things too seriously. Knightley’s career began in her teens and, as she told the Guardian, up to age 25, she was “pretty neurotic.” But on her 25th birthday, Knightley had an epiphany: “I remember it so clearly. I suddenly woke up at 25 and was like: It’s all OK.” Now when it comes to criticism, she does not internalize it in the slightest. “Who gives a shit? My attitude now is that some people will enjoy it and some people won’t,” she added. “Just make it for the people who enjoy it.”
As she shared in conversation with the Talks, “It is impossible, so you might as well say, ‘Fuck ’em!’ But I think particularly through that [teen] period, I learned you can say nothing; you can be perfectly smiling, wearing a perfectly nice dress at the opening of a charity or something, and people can still despise you for it.”
She continued, “Or you can wear the same dress and you can speak and people might despise you for it—or they might actually appreciate it. Ultimately, you don’t really have any control over how it’s taken. You can only be yourself in the center of that.”
Follow the work, not the fame. While many pursue acting in the hopes of hitting it big and finding A-list fame, Whishaw finds that the public aspects of the job can detract from personal fulfillment—something which newcomers should be aware of. “I think that’s something [Arthur] Miller writes a lot about, having this social face and then a private self. Maybe everyone feels that, but as an actor you feel that in a sort of strange, intense way because you’re in public,” he told us. “It’s bizarre, these kinds of pressures that inform your life, your behavior. Sometimes you look at them coldly and think, What am I doing? But, nonetheless, it’s deeply ingrained.
“As an actor, your job is to persuade people that you’re someone else,” he added. “So if you’re constantly telling people about yourself, I think you’re shooting yourself in the foot…. I think there can be an awful, heavy pressure to look a certain way or be a certain thing. Or fame—you could think that that’s what’s important when it’s not, really; at least it’s not for me, and it isn’t for most people I admire.”
Seek out connection. Whether you’re in the audition room or on set, the most powerful roles are those that connect with an audience on a deeper level. For Koji, films always provided that solace, which likely fueled his desire to act. “I was a very quiet kid up until my teenage years, when I became very troubled…. Maybe it was partly fed by the identity issues of: Who am I? What am I? I look back now and all of this fed into that,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “And I think the one escape that I had from that was films.
“When I was a very quiet, shy, insular person, I saw films and great performances which moved me really deeply and profoundly. I felt this was a worthwhile pursuit if I can feel less alone—if I can feel like there are other people going through the same problems I have—from watching a film,” he noted. “Then I went to acting school and somehow all my built up years of turmoil came out. [I realized] we can go through this pain and this trouble, and these things can be cathartic to release and also help other people. I can do what they’ve done for me.”
Own your time. Sterne wants actors to remember that the moment they walk into the audition room, the time belongs to them and them alone. “I think that you have to remember that when you go in the room, it’s your time and it’s your opportunity to do what you need to do. You know that the people at the other side of the room should be there to facilitate you to do the best work that you can in those conditions,” he said. “Make sure that you get the opportunity to say what you want to say about it, to ask the questions that you want to ask about it. Give the performance in the room that you want to. Then you’ve got to have the confidence to say, ‘I want to go again and try it this way. Because this is what I want to do with this scene. And this is what I want to achieve with it.’ Just make sure that you own that time.”