• Keira Knightley said she hasn't watched "Love Actually" since attending the premiere in 2003.
• She said on "The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon" that she doesn't like watching her own films.
• Instead, she said her favorite Christmas movie is "Die Hard."

"Love Actually" is one of the most successful Christmas movies ever, but Keira Knightley, who starred in it, hasn't seen the festive rom-com in years.

Knightley rose to fame after playing Juliet in the film, a character who discovers that her husband's best friend, the best man at their wedding, secretly loves her.

Knightley said on Monday's episode of "The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon" that she hadn't seen "Love Actually" since attending the premiere at 18.

"This is nothing about 'Love Actually.' I don't really watch anything I do," Knightley said. "But I know that 'Love Actually' obviously has become this massive thing. And for lots of people, it's part of their Christmas."

Many actors, including Emma Stone, Adam Driver, and Meryl Streep, have said that they don't like or have avoided watching films they have starred in.

Knightley isn't even the only "Love Actually" actor who's avoided watching the movie again. Joanna Page, Knightley's costar in "Love Actually," also said on "Loose Women" in 2022 that she had only watched the film once.

According to The Metro, Page said it was "utterly traumatic" watching it at a film festival in Cardiff, Wales, with her then-boyfriend and her parents.

"Because I don't like watching myself at the best of times, and then also I don't particularly like watching myself naked on cinema screens," Page said. "So it was really, really weird."

When asked on "The Tonight Show " what her favorite Christmas film was, Knightley said "Die Hard," which led to laughter and applause from the crowd.

For years, fans have debated whether "Die Hard" should count as a Christmas movie because, as an action movie, it doesn't fit the mold of other films in that genre.

However, the film is set on Christmas Eve and features plenty of Christmas references.

Host Jimmy Fallon quickly changed the subject before a debate could start on the show.

Knightley was actually on the talk show to promote another project set in London during the Christmas season. Her new Netflix series, the spy thriller "Black Doves," premiered last week and landed Knightley a Golden Globe nomination.

• Netflix's "Black Doves" follows a spy who seeks revenge when her lover is assassinated.
• Keira Knightley plays Helen Webb opposite Ben Whishaw as Sam Young.
• The end of the season leaves things open for both characters.

Netflix's "Black Doves" is the latest buzzy espionage TV drama to get audiences talking in 2024 after the likes of "Slow Horses," "The Day of the Jackal," and "The Agency."

The show follows Helen Webb (Keira Knightley), a spy who seeks revenge over the death of her lover, Jason Davies (Andrew Koji), who is assassinated on London's South Bank during the show's opening sequence.

Webb works for a private espionage organization, the Black Doves, and her boss orders hitman Sam Young (Ben Whishaw) to protect her because she's also a potential target as the wife of the British defense secretary.

By the end of the six-episode series, Webb and Young figure out who killed Davies and why. Here's what happened.

Trent Clark killed Jason Davies to cover up the accidental murder of the Chinese ambassador.

During Webb and Young's investigation into who assassinated Davies, they discover that it's closely linked to the death of the Chinese ambassador in London.

The coverup around the incident brews a potential war, because the Chinese government believes the U.S. and Britain planned the attack. However, the truth is much different.

Webb and Young discover that Trent Clark (Angus Cooper), the son of the powerful Clark crime family in London, accidentally killed Ambassador Chen (Andy Cheung) in a moment of rage. The high-ranking official confronts Clark, who has been supplying his daughter, Kai-Ming (Isabella Wei), with heroin.

Clark pushes Chen during the argument, causing him to fall and hit his head — killing him.

Davies and his associates record the whole incident and plot to release the footage to expose the Clark family and the political corruption they were involved in.

That's why Clark had Davies executed.

Sam Young kills Trent Clark at the end of "Black Doves," putting a target on his own back.

This all culminates in a dramatic confrontation between Webb, Young, and Clark, who is backed up by his mother and the family's steely matriarch, Alex Clark (Tracey Ullman). Webb is determined to execute Clark for killing her secret boyfriend — but when Alex attempts to disarm her, Young jumps in and executes both of the Clarks.

Webb is angry that she was unable to get revenge on the people who killed her boyfriend. But by killing two prominent members of the Clark family, Young effectively paints a target on his back and cuts his chances of leaving the life of a triggerman behind.

Season two was confirmed in August without a release date. When it arrives, Young will probably have to deal with being hunted by the rest of the Clark family.

Showrunner and creator Joe Barton told Tudum that Young saving Webb is a poetic moment because she did the same for him. During a flashback to 2017, she chose to save Young's ex-boyfriend, Michael (Omari Douglas), instead of leaving the Black Doves while pregnant.

Barton said: "The idea was that Sam makes a personal sacrifice for his friend because he loves her, and because, as you see in episode three, she sacrificed her own chance to get out in order to help him. He's there to do anything for her, so he does it."

The final episode closes leaving a few other threads open for exploration in season two. Young still hasn't killed gangster Hector Newman (Luther Ford) for Lenny (Kathryn Hunter), which will probably continue to cause tension.

Meanwhile, Webb's husband, Wallace Webb (Andrew Buchan), is on track to become the next prime minister, which will likely make her job as a Black Dove even harder.

• Netflix's new thriller series "Black Doves" follows a spy who hunts for her lover's killer.
• It stars Keira Knightley and "Paddington" voice actor Ben Whishaw.
• The streaming service renewed "Black Doves" months before the first season premiered.

Netflix's new series "Black Doves" is taking off on the streamer.

The London-based spy thriller was met with critical praise when it dropped on Thursday, receiving a 97% rating on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.

The show stars Keira Knightley as Helen Webb, an operative for the Black Doves, a private espionage agency that gathers secrets and sells them to the highest bidder. She's also married to the UK government's defence secretary, something she uses to the advantage of her company.

However, she embarks on a revenge mission with her old mentor, Sam Young (Ben Whishaw) when the man she's been having an affair with is assassinated shortly before Christmas.

Knightley's role as a spy is a little different from what audiences might expect from her, and in a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times, the actor said that the series would've impressed her younger self.

"My teenage self is thrilled with this. Sometimes you have to listen to your teenage self and go, 'This one's for you,' you know. I think she would have found this very cool," she said.

Fans who have binged the six-episode series already will be keen to know whether Webb and Young will return for more shady shenanigans. Here's what we know about "Black Doves" season two.

'Black Doves' season 2 was confirmed in August 2024

The streaming service seemingly had a lot of faith in "Black Doves," because it announced that it had renewed the series for a second season back in August 2024, several months before it premiered.

The streaming service has not yet announced a release date or production timeline for the new season, so it's unclear how long of a wait fans will have.

The ending of "Black Doves" leaves Webb and Young in a precarious place. In season two, their hunt for the person responsible for killing Jason Davies (Andrew Koji) will lead to more problems that will no doubt have to be solved with lots of guns and bloody murder.

Showrunner and creator Joe Barton told Variety that he's in the middle of writing "Black Doves" season two, which might involve exploring Webb's backstory further using material cut from the first season.

"We're still early in the process. I'm writing the first episode still, and we're kind of feeling our way through it," Barton said. "We filmed some flashbacks, which didn't make the final cut, of young Helen and her stepdad and her sister Bonnie. I think that would be really interesting to find out more about."

"Black Doves" is streaming on Netflix.

• Keira Knightley recalled how she was told that she "wanted to be stalked" early in her career.
• Knightley became famous after starring in "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "Love Actually" in 2003.
• Now, she's opening up about how toxic Hollywood was for women in the early 2000s.

Keira Knightley was told she "wanted to be stalked" at the beginning of her career. The actor spoke about the "violent, misogynistic atmosphere" of Hollywood in the 2000s in an interview on Thursday.

The British actor became famous after landing roles in "Love Actually" and "Pirates of the Caribbean" in 2003 at 17-years-old. As a result, Knightley spent her late teens and early 20s under the press's microscope.

Speaking to the Los Angeles Times ahead of her new Netflix series, "Black Doves," Knightley recalled being told that she "wanted to be stalked" during her rise to fame.

In response to a question by the LA Times reporter about the culture of Hollywood back then, Knightley said, "I didn't think it was okay at the time. I was very clear on it being absolutely shocking. There was an amount of gaslighting to be told by a load of men that 'you wanted this.' It was rape speak. You know, 'This is what you deserve.'"

Knightley continued to paint a picture of the negative atmosphere in early 2000s Hollywood that women had to navigate.

She added, "It was a very violent, misogynistic atmosphere. They very specifically meant I wanted to be stalked by men. Whether that was stalking because somebody was mentally ill, or because people were earning money from it — it felt the same to me. It was a brutal time to be a young woman in the public eye."

The star is also conscious that despite the harassment and pressure she faced, her early work gave her "financial stability."

"It's very brutal to have your privacy taken away in your teenage years, early 20s, and to be put under that scrutiny at a point when you are still growing. Having said that, I wouldn't have the financial stability or the career that I do now without that period," she said.

Keira Knightley was 17 when she first starting filming the "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise in 2003. She played Elizabeth Swann, the point of a love triangle opposite Orlando Bloom, who was 26 at the time, and Johnny Depp who was 22 years Knightley's senior.

She of said the five-year period of success in her early career, "It totally set me up for life. Did it come at a cost? Yes, it did. It came at a big cost."

The thing that got the actor through her turbulent era of fame was having people around her who were disconnected from Hollywood.

She added, "I had a separate life from the industry, and I've maintained that."

This isn't the first time that Knightley has opened up about the toxicity she endured at a young age.

In November, she recalled how her role in "Pirates of the Caribbean" was the main reason she was "taken down publicly."

In 2018, Knightley told The Hollywood Reporter that paparazzi constantly followed her because they wanted to tear her down.

"It was big money to get pictures of women falling apart because you [consumers] wanted them to be sexy, but you wanted to punish them for that sexuality," she said.

• Keira Knightley says she had to step back from her career because she chose to have kids.
• "I've been really surprised in the past few years about what I've said no to," Knightley told The Times.
• Working women across industries are often forced to choose between their careers and having children.

Keira Knightley, 39, chose to prioritize motherhood over her career.

In an interview with The Times published on Saturday, Knightley spoke about her decision to have children and the impact it had on her career decisions.

"I couldn't go job to job [abroad] now. It wouldn't be in any way fair on them, and I wouldn't want to," Knightley told The Times. "I've chosen to have children, I want to bring them up, so I've had to take a major step back."

The "Pride and Prejudice" actor has two daughters — Edie, 9, and Delilah, 5 — with her husband, musician James Righton.

Not only does Knightley now prefer roles that will allow her daughters to stay settled in school, but she's also looking for roles that aren't too emotionally taxing.

"I've been really surprised in the past few years about what I've said no to. I've wanted it to be more pure entertainment and maybe that's because I've needed that," she said. "I keep being offered things about children dying or about mothers dying. Can't do it."

Even though the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies made her a household name, Knightley says she doesn't want to appear in a franchise again.

"The hours are insane. It's years of your life, you have no control over where you're filming, how long you're filming, what you're filming," she said.

Knightley says she's also open to producing or directing a film, or even switching industries, although it won't happen while her daughters are still young.

"The world is an interesting place and there are other things in it I'd like to discover. I'm aware I've been doing the same thing for a very, very long time," she said.

The actor was 16 when she starred in "Bend It Like Beckham."

Knightley isn't the only celebrity who has spoken up about juggling motherhood and their careers.

In August, Blake Lively said she experiences mom guilt whenever she has to choose work over her family.

"When you're working, sometimes you feel guilty for, you know, not being in your personal life in those hours you're at work," Lively said. "And then when you're at work, you feel guilty by being distracted by wishing that you were at your personal life."

In March, Whoopi Goldberg explained on an episode of "The View" why she prioritized her career over her child.

"My kid came before my career, and I chose my career because I knew this would never happen again," Goldberg said. "She didn't always like it, but that is the process of being a parent. They're not supposed to like everything you do."

However, Hollywood moms are not the only ones who face this dilemma; working women across industries are often forced to choose between their careers and having children.

Part of it is due to the "motherhood penalty" — the pay gap that women experience when they become mothers, according to Claudia Goldin, a Nobel Prize-winning Harvard professor.

Her 16-year-long study found that female MBA graduates who have children are more likely to have less job experience, more interruptions to their careers, and earnings decline — something that their male counterparts do not experience.

A representative for Knightley did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours.