Between the underworld of Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen, the high-stakes investigation of Neil Forsyth’s Legends, and the period setting of Dolly Alderton’s Pride & Prejudice, Jasmine Blackborow’s current slate is diverse. Beyond her roles on screen, she is also writing and directing her first short film: Lovely. We spoke with her about the day-to-day reality of the job and the side of the industry that people looking in from the outside wouldn’t expect.
The Screen
On the Narrative Arc of Legends
The series is inspired by real-life investigation where ordinary people were thrown into extraordinary stakes. As the operation in Legends intensifies, what is it like to track your characters evolution as she moves from her initial world into the center of such a high-pressure environment?
Erin is super bright, but she’s spent all her life hiding it. She’s learnt to play things safe, keep her head down and blend in. And she is BORED. But being part of the Legends team ignites a fire in her belly that she didn’t know she had, so the ‘evolution’ was an unlearning; a breaking out of the small box she’d confined herself into for so long. I spent a lot of my prep planning and tracking this – when does her guard get let down? When does she learn to stand up for herself? And then I began working out how this affects the way she holds herself, speaks or moves through the world.
The show’s storyline and Erin’s evolution make for a funny dichotomy; as the operation intensifies and everything’s falling apart, Erin is on this brilliant, awakening journey of self-discovery. Some people go on a yoga retreat; she decides to take on heroin gangs…
On the Duality of the Character
In Legends, appearances are rarely what they seem. Whether your character is navigating the law or the criminal underworld, how did you approach the challenge of playing someone who has to maintain multiple versions of the truth as the stakes become higher?
Erin is the brains behind everyone else’s operations, so she spends much of her time juggling everyone else’s duplicity. The responsibility is a huge weight on her shoulders and something she isn’t emotionally prepared for when she starts. The story is based on true events, so in preparation I read Guy Stanton’s autobiography (Tom Burke’s character). Something I really took away from it was the importance of knowledge – knowing too much can actually be more dangerous than knowing too little. Erin has to know everything, but she can’t share it all, she has to make sure Guy’s operation stays separate to Kate and Bailey’s (Hayley Squires and Aml Ameen) and their survival out on the field really depends on this. She does eventually build up to her own big ‘undercover’ moment, but I won’t spoil that. It’s a glorious finale.
On Charlotte Lucas in Pride and Prejudice
Charlotte Lucas is often discussed through the lens of her pragmatism. In this new adaptation, how did you approach her story to ensure her decisions feel like a meaningful, personal choice for her own future?
Since filming I have learnt that Charlotte Lucas has a bad rap amongst some diehard Pride and Prejudice fans, but I will defend her to the last! Pragmatism can come at great emotional cost. Just because you can see the merits of something, doesn’t mean you can’t mourn what could have been under different circumstances. I have so much admiration for her. Not many people would choose a life without passion, without love. It takes a certain type of courage and confidence, a sense of self-worth even, to know that she can take that on and still find happiness. The more I delved into her motivations the more I found her to be a woman ahead of her time, carving out her own form of independence in a society that has limited her freedom and deems her of very little value – she is not beautiful or rich, and nobody cares that she’s funny, thoughtful and intelligent. Even some of her lines are an echo of Virginia Woolf’s, but a century earlier: “All I ask for is a comfortable home of my own”. So yes, she is worn down and tired of the rejection, but she is not bitter. She has cried over it, but she has not given up. Instead, she rallies and takes things into her own hands, and I think that makes her a very cool cat.
On the Interiority of Charlotte
Dolly Aldertons work often explores the quiet endurance within women’s lives. How did that focus on internal world-building influence the way you portrayed Charlotte’s specific brand of self-preservation in a 19th-century setting?
It’s funny, you do all your prep on your own, and then you come to set and meet your co-stars, and it suddenly all clicks into place. It wasn’t until my first scene with Jamie Demetriou (Mr Collins) and responding to everything he was bringing to the role that I fully realised why Charlotte agrees to marry him. Or at least why my Charlotte agrees to marry his Mr Collins, anyway. For one, he is completely harmless. He’s a puppy dog. Yes, there are social faux pas, but Charlotte doesn’t judge as fiercely as the Bennets do and can see it comes from a place of insecurity, not innate cruelty or arrogance. And then of course there’s the fact that he is hilarious. Well, Jamie is…but it made me think that perhaps she finds him rather funny too. So, endurance started to take a different form – they say the key to a good marriage is laughter, and although Mr Collins may be unaware of his part in it, I think Charlotte can see the potential there! We perhaps forget, or underestimate, how funny Austen is and what a cracking sense of humour her female characters have. Lizzie and Charlotte’s friendship is built on this quick wit and intelligence. They love making each other laugh, it’s how they survive some of the ridiculous notions society imposes, and Emma and I had a lot of fun with that. Dolly’s adaptation obviously excels here; she manages to keep it fresh and so, so funny, but never at the expense of authenticity. She is faithful to Austen throughout, and much of our dialogue is taken word for word from the original.
On the Evolution of Charly in The Gentlemen
Coming back for Season 2 of The Gentlemen, the Horniman family dynamic has shifted significantly. What is it like to find Charly’s place in that world now that the stakes for her brothers have become so much more volatile?
Charly has an uncanny objectivity. She can’t be described as the black sheep as she is very much a product of her upbringing, but she has this cool, almost cutting ability to observe it from the outside too, and to take it all with a pinch of salt. Discovering that Geoff is her father, or at least confirming a suspicion she always had, has probably cemented her sense of identity. She belongs, but she also doesn’t. She can tap in or tap out. It’s a quality Eddie (Theo James) values, so he often turns to her or listens to her when he needs a dose of the truth.
In this series, Charly has become a mother, so suddenly family has become this very primal thing that she feels the need to protect. But for her it’s not about maintaining tradition or etiquette; it’s about love and loyalty.
Beyond the Screen
On the Inspiration Behind the Short Film
You both wrote and directed Lovely. There is a very raw honesty in the way the family tries to bridge the gap when every interaction feels like a guessing game. What was the starting point for you in wanting to tell this story?
My Granny died relatively young after living with a gruelling degenerative condition, which first took away her ability to speak and then her ability to move. Watching her deterioration over a decade, seeing her frustration over her lack of agency, seeing how incredibly my Mum and Aunt cared for her. It was a horrible situation to be in but also brought us moments of intense joy and utter hilarity. This jumbled mess of emotions, the lessons about inheritance and motherhood that I learned in this time. It was a coming-of-age of sorts, for all of us, and was a story I felt needed to be honoured. My cousin produced it and I am so glad we have been able to share our family’s experience in a way that we hope many other families can relate to.
On Stepping Behind the Lens
What was the most challenging part of shaping the story from that other side of the camera?
Having an image or a mood in your head and trying to convey it to a team of creatives is such a challenge. You picture it so clearly that you think everyone else can see it too! I feel very strongly about making space for comedy when telling stories like this and capturing that rhythm in the edit was harder than I thought it would be. On the page and on the set, it tripped along exactly how I wanted it, but when you’re piecing together five different camera angles it requires a different instinct.
On the Premiere and Beyond
Where and when can audiences look forward to seeing it?
We’re currently submitting Lovely to film festivals, so we’re really hoping audiences will have an opportunity to see it at some of these. I’d also really like to arrange some screenings in Cornwall and the Southwest where it is set, and my Granny was from and some private events for families also living with PSP.
Behind the Scenes
On the Day-to-Day Reality
Youve mentioned that you didnt initially see acting as a career path until a tutor pushed you to realize it was an option. Now that youre moving between these massive, high-pressure worlds like
Self-tapes. Very few auditions happen in person these days, at least not in the first round. Instead, we have to film ourselves at home performing the scenes (or in our hotel rooms after a day on set!). You have to ask an actor friend to read in the other lines, then choose the takes, edit it, and send it to our agents or casting directors. It’s like being a content creator! I have snazzy lights, a camera, microphone – whenever I’ve moved house I’ve quickly assessed which wall will be my “self-tape” wall and we’ve had to paint it and hang our pictures around it accordingly! I have amazing friends and we all help each other out. My poor husband (a cider maker, not an actor…) has even been roped in to read with me, but I can’t look at him! He has to stand far away in the corner of the room, and I’ll act off a post it note or something. The plus side is it’s helped the industry not be so London-centric – it’s democratising in that way, and I can get a tape done while my daughter naps. The downside is it is really time consuming – you’re asking for favours all the time, and it’s very much an unpaid labour of love.
On Finding the Character
When you first receive a script, what are the things that give you an immediate insight into how that person sees the world?
Good writing does it all for you. The best writers are the ones who can suck you into a specific world or atmosphere as soon as a scene starts. And from there you can see how your character fits into that. But they also leave you enough space to fill in the gaps and make the person on the page a living breathing human.
On the Creative Thread
Looking at the range of your work across screen and audio—from historical dramas to contemporary thrillers—is there a specific thread or a common element you look for in a character before you decide to take it on?
Most actors don’t have a huge amount of agency over what characters we get to say yes and no to. So, I’m generally completely blindsided that anyone wants me to play anything, and that they’ll pay me to do it! What a dream! But no, some incredible characters have come my way and it’s actually how different they are – and knowing that I need to approach each of them differently – that motivates me the most. Lamballe (Marie Antoinette) ended up needing animal work to fully click into place, for Erin (Legends) I was out stomping the streets I imagined she grew up in. For Charly (The Gentlemen) it’s no prep (which is such an alien concept to me) but she works best when I just turn up and think on my feet. And then of course there’s playing real-life, recognisable people. I’ve played Bella Freud (Moss & Freud) and Marilyn Monroe (Here in America) recently. They took a great deal of technical skill which I wasn’t sure if I had in me or not. To be so precise with voice and movement, but also have the freedom to play, that was a huge new challenge.
Dive Deeper
- Watch: The Gentlemen and Legends are both now streaming on Netflix.
- Watch: Jasmine stars as Charlotte Lucas in Dolly Alderton’s adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, coming to Netflix in Autumn 2026.
- Read: The true story behind Legends is detailed in Guy Stanton’s autobiography, available here.
- Read: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. The original novel is available here.
Photographer: Pip @bypip
Stylist: Tilly Wheating @tillywheating
Makeup: Charlotte Hayward @charlottehayward
Hair: Allie Harknett @allie.hairstylist