Keira Knightley reveals why she stepped away from stunts after the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. Read on to find out the details.

Keira Knightley, who has starred in breakout roles in action-heavy films such as Domino, King Arthur, and the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, deliberately took a step back from stunts in her early 20s. In a recent interview, she looked back at her career and expressed deep interest in taking on more action roles.

Why Women DON’T Get Out Of An Abusive Marriage? | #shorts #marriage #divorce

55

The Love Actually star found the lengthy, repetitive nature of action scenes uninspiring and wanted to focus on more dialogue-driven, dramatic roles. However, her latest project, Joe Barton’s spy thriller Black Doves, has reignited her appreciation for physical storytelling.

Knightley told Deadline, “I really enjoyed it. I did quite a lot of it in my late teens and early 20s. And then I hadn’t wanted to touch it for ages. And it was really fun going back to it. We did lots of boxing, Filipino knife fighting and jiu-jitsu. Yeah, it was really fun.”

She got the best of both worlds: this series lets her combine an interest in detailed character-driven drama with action choreography, a pace that makes the story highly engaging and entertaining.

In Black Doves, Knightley plays Helen Webb, who lives a contradictory life as a caring mother, devoted wife, and a spy, and, consequently, she betrays her closest people. Knightley was drawn to the layered complexity of the role. She found her character’s “juicy” contradictions fun to play and was fascinated by them.

While she has always enjoyed the spy genre, she loves its melancholic undertones. She wants to act in dramas and work on fast-paced projects.

Knightley said, “I wanted to do more serious stuff. I wanted to do stuff that was about words. Also, when you’re doing action films, generally speaking, it takes a long time. It’s quite dull. It tends to take weeks and weeks and weeks, and you’re doing tiny pieces. It didn’t do it for me.”

However, in this Netflix series, she got to shoot all the tedious action sequences in a day. She added, “There was no hanging about. And for my brain, not being bored is important. So, the speed of it, I really enjoyed. But, also, it was fun to use my body in a way that I hadn’t for however long.”

Black Doves is now available on Netflix streaming.