Italian
After stunt-heavy roles in “The Woman King” and “No Time to Die,” Lashana Lynch was ready for something less physically taxing. “I’m really proud of that moment [doing all her own stunts in ‘The Woman King’], but I didn’t want to do it again anytime soon,” she admits. So when she was offered crime caper “The Day of the Jackal” – while still shooting “Bob Marley: One Love,” an experience she describes as “tranquil, calm, wonderful” with no stunts – it wasn’t an instant yes.
“It took me a beat to read the episodes, not because I didn’t think that they were going to be good, but because I was very aware — hyper aware — of affecting the legacy move that is being a part of ‘No Time to Die,’ which was just such a wonderful a massive deal for the world,” Lynch tells Variety. “But then I read the first three episodes and was completely drawn in.”
In “The Day of the Jackal,” Lynch plays Bianca, a detective obsessively hunting an enigmatic assassin known only as the Jackal (played by Eddie Redmayne). As well as the fast-paced storyline, Lynch was drawn to exploring “the psychology behind women in service with a fine tooth comb, and also how they balance being a good human, a good wife, a good mother, make good choices in order to sustain lovely lives.”
Popular on Variety While the series, which launched in the U.K. on Sky on Nov. 7 and premiered on Peacock Thursday night, has its fair share of action scenes, Lynch made the decision early on that she wasn’t going to do her own stunts this time round. “Respectfully — I love the stunt industry and I think they all need to be celebrated, especially women,” she says.
Instead, Lynch focused on acting and producing, having boarded the project as an exec producer alongside Redmayne. The dual roles meant she found herself thinking about scenes in a new way. “I was splitting my brain between what is going to feel good in my body and feel good as an actor, but also how things are going to edit together,” she recalls. “What music would be best with this? What will the sound sound like? Is the mic going to pick up all the heavy breathing or is there going to be a lot of ADR? There’s so many things that were going on in my mind that I just wanted everything to be as rich in experience as possible, both for us and the audience.”
Part of her vision for the series was keeping it grounded. “I’ve done weaponry before, and it’s tough, but in every given moment I thought, ‘Gosh, these chases really have to read as completely realistic,’” says Lynch. “And I don’t want anyone to glorify anything or think that this is two superheroes running around with the perfect chase. It was the complications — both in the narrative but also in me wanting better for the industry in every single moment. That’s a lot of weight to put in every moment.”
Despite being done with stuntwork (at least for now), the actor is still open to returning to the Bond franchise, reprising her role as 007 agent Nomi, who was poised to take over from Daniel Craig at the end of “No Time to Die.” “If there’s enough story there that makes sense then I’m sure audiences will be able to have a really cool experience seeing Nomi again,” she says. “But I genuinely do not know. It’s left in the air.”
Has she heard anything from Bond producers Eon as to what’s happening with the next installment? “I haven’t. I really haven’t,” Lynch says earnestly. “And it’s so intriguing to be in the position whereby I’ve been a part of that world and everyone assumes — or some people assume — that I would have information. I genuinely don’t! Genuinely. But I’m as intrigued as everyone else.”
