There is something quietly magnetic about Jasmine Blackborow. An actress drawn to complex, evolving characters, she approaches each role with curiosity, instinct and a deep attention to detail. From “The Gentlemen” to “Pride and Prejudice” and “Legends”, she has embraced stories that explore identity, transformation and unexpected strength.

With “Lovely”, her deeply personal directorial debut inspired by her grandmother’s story, Jasmine has also stepped behind the camera, discovering a new creative language of her own. In this conversation, she talks about inhabiting other lives, embracing the unexpected, finding courage in vulnerability, and learning to trust her own voice.

I genuinely think “The Gentlemen” is one of the best series on Netflix. It has such a distinctive rhythm and a way of telling the story that feels incredibly bold and completely unfiltered. What was your first reaction when you read the script and met your character and the world of the series? What went through your mind?

It’s a funny one, because when you’re first auditioning and reading, sometimes they send you so little, especially something big. In this case, you know, it’s Netflix, it’s Guy Ritchie, so it’s a big, exciting project, and they won’t send you the scripts, usually they send you one scene, or they change the names. This show was one of those that is really under-wraps.

I remember when I first auditioned, it was so early on in the script, they didn’t even have Charly as a character. The first script I read, I read for Susie! When they next came back, they offered me Charly, telling me, “We’re writing her in” and sending me some scenes.

I love how Charly’s character has developed over the seasons and how it had to develop in season one because they had to react to the fact that then I was actually pregnant. And then how she’s evolved in season two is just brilliant. I also love the way family has such an integral part to Eddie’s story and they’re something consistent for him. There’s this kind of strength that he pulls from particularly Charly because she has a cool, incisive, objective view of things, and he really trusts her opinion.

And what about the Guy Ritchie rhythm? Was it fun to play with it?

It’s brilliant. I mean, it could be terrifying, but I love it, I really relish it.

It means that you can’t prepare that much, and in some ways that’s scary, right?

Yeah, actors love a script. They love being told what to do and prepare it and do it in the best way possible. That’s one way of working, which I really love and value. And then there’s Guy Ritchie’s way – his is so playful. We all get to throw some ideas in the ring and improvise some bits, so something more comes to life. Once he sees something that is working, then it’s really set in stone, and we work with that. I guess it keeps you on your toes, which for me is good because sometimes I overthink. And when you’re an actor preparing for things, often you’re preparing on your own at home with your script, while with Guy Ritchie I don’t do so much of that – I just go there and I react to what everyone is giving me. So, it’s a different discipline, but I really value it.

“I guess it keeps you on your toes, which for me is good because sometimes I overthink.”

To be surprised every time, it must be cool.

Yeah, exactly. And it was funny. I started laughing at the beginning of season two. First day, I walked on set and Matthew Read, one of the writers and producers, just handed me a new script. I was like, “Oh, here we go” [laughs].

In this second season, your character has a much bigger arc, and I really love her development. She goes through some intense moments, especially when it comes to certain things that happen to her family. There’s a moment when we see all her desperation, but at the same time, we can see her strength. If you could talk to her and say something to her, what would you say?

Good question. I’d say, “Yeah, you got this”. She’s cooler and stronger than she knows. I think it’s a lot to do with the recent, secret discovery that Geoff (Vinnie Jones) is in fact her Father. She knew in her heart she was different, but now she is learning that she’s inherited some of his grit and strength.

The whole family faces some very frightening and terrifying moments in this season. What do you think your character is most afraid of? And what are you most afraid of?

Before being a mother, I had never been afraid of dying. No one wants to die really, but I wasn’t afraid of it. Now that I have a daughter, the thought of dying would mean that she would be motherless, and that terrifies me. 

I think the appreciation of life and wanting to protect and serve and be there for your family is something that’s quite new to Charlotte, and we see that in this series she comes into acute peril. So, I think that’s what she’s obviously most afraid of, which is anything happening to her child, anything happening to her little cub. And anything happening to her, because she wants to be the one to protect him.

“The appreciation of life”

Yeah. And also, I love the scene in one of the final episodes where your character talks to Eddie and makes him understand that she will be on his side. Do you think that in this case, some amount of love could heal Eddie?

Eddie goes on such a huge internal journey in this series, and he’s so different from the man we met in episode one. Where is he going to go? What’s his way forward? What’s his way out? I have absolutely no idea. But he is loved by his family, and they are so loyal to him because he is a good person, he is a gentleman in all ways. But he has found this darker side, which has come from also letting himself fall in love. It’s going to be so interesting to see how and in what way he is corrupted and comes out of it.

In the last episodes, there is much talking about evolving and transforming. What kind of evolution would you like to see in your character?

I’d like to see her take on roles of responsibility, actually. She’s the youngest of the three and she’s been allowed to do her own thing, and she likes that. She can be quite cool and cutting because she’s a “slightly dark horse” and because she’s the bastard child. She does also actively shy away from responsibility, so it would be quite cool to see her take some ownership of something. I’d love to do some scenes with Kaya [Scodelario], basically. She’s so cool, and we get on really well. We just lament that we don’t actually ever have any scenes together.

Yeah, we met Kaya, she’s great, and a scene with the two of you would be so girl power!

But now, speaking of “Pride and Prejudice”, where you pay the super cool Charlotte Lucas: what was it like to enter such an iconic story?

Absolutely crazy. Because it’s such a part of our culture here – “Pride and Prejudice” is so famous and well known. There are things that people say, like sayings and phrases, that they have no idea come from that book. It’s a part of our history, so it’s a real honour.

Anyway, I didn’t actually feel daunted by that, per se. I maybe felt daunted by the calibre of the cast! Also, the place I was in at the time was maybe feeling a bit self-conscious about things, so I kept thinking, “Am I going to be good enough?”. But the fact that you’re stepping into this cultural heritage was really exciting and inspiring.

I think in general, acting gives you so many chances to discover new parts of yourself, through all the different lives you live. What is the latest thing you discovered about yourself playing one of your characters, either Charlotte Lucas or anyone else lately?

It is my favourite part, the prep part. I get really nerdy with this stuff.

You mean like reading the scripts?

Yeah. I have lots of different approaches for different roles. But I like to try and discover that character as much as possible and step into their shoes, essentially, so that then when you’re on set, you’re not acting, you’re just being them in any given scenario. Figuring out how other people think, but also researching how they live their day-to-day life, what they would have been doing – I find that so interesting. I loved playing Erin in “Legends”, for example, and the research I was doing for that, because it’s based on real people and a real period of time. I even found this woman’s blog about being a secretary in the 1980s, and I emailed the author, a random woman out of the blue! I asked her things like, “You’re going to think I’m mad, but… What kind of qualifications would I have needed if I were you?” [laughs].

Charlotte Lucas was a woman ahead of her time, forging a path for independence, and in this time that they were living, actually, she’s right. She says she wants a room of her own or a house of her own, and for her independence that means to marry someone else, which of course is so confining and devastating…but it’s a different period of history. Actually, I think she was forging her own path in this really independently spirited way. And she’s quite sensible about that. I really respect that. I hope that I’ve done and do and continue to do things in my life which are, in my own quiet way, pushing through the status quo and quietly breaking some barriers.

“I hope that I’ve done and do and continue to do things in my life which are, in my own quiet way, pushing through the status quo and quietly breaking some barriers.”

Speaking of the TV series “Legends”: the real operation behind it stayed secret for decades. What was it like building a performance around a character, Erin, whose real-life counterpart couldn’t speak openly about what she’d done?

There weren’t actually many women, in fact Erin and Kate (Hayley Squires) are a bit of an amalgamation of various people, so I was never able to ring or speak to someone specific. I did meet Guy Stanton and his wife though, and his book describes some of the handlers, and pools of secretarial teams he worked with so I worked a lot from that.

It’s just unbelievable to think how alone they were. They’re not MI5, they’re not the police – they are this tiny team of people who had never gone undercover before. It’s not like there were all these resources to help them on the other side, it was just: “Go do this for a bit and then go back to your day-to-day lives”. It’s mind-boggling, but an amazing story which I’m glad has actually been honoured in this way.

Erin’s arc is as much about self-discovery as it is about crime and danger. How did you balance the show’s thriller stakes with that more personal, internal journey?

I think that’s the best thing about Neil [Forsyth]’s writing – every character is so well thought out, and so three-dimensional. And the director Brady Hood really embraces that as well, he’s so people driven, and he really helped us nurture these characters. And also, for Neil, nothing is black and white – the bad guys are not fully bad, everyone has their reasons for doing things, and so that’s where I started, asking myself, “Why does Erin say yes to this new role, this new mission? And why has she not been pushing herself in this way before?”. So, I started digging into that.

It’s funny because there’s this weird juxtaposition where she’s growing in confidence as the mission is just getting crazier and crazier and falling apart and getting more and more dangerous, but she’s actually coming into her own – it ignites this fire in her which she didn’t know she had, and then she’s rolling with it. I think it’s such a wonderful thing to watch her story bloom in that way, and I really enjoyed it.

Now speaking of your short movie “Lovely”: I was really touched by the story, it was so delicate and yet so loud. What was the moment you knew this particular story needed to be told, and why now, as your directorial debut?

The story is based on what happened to my grandmother. I think everyone can relate in some way; their specific situation might be different, but everyone is experiencing illness and ageing – life is so unpredictable and you don’t know what you’re going to be thrown. This is something that my family lived with for 10 years, and my granny died relatively young of this illness that just kind of came out of nowhere. When you’re in it, you’re just living it, right? And when you’re in it and you’re living it, it can also be quite funny when some bizarre things happen, like in the film. As a family, you just get on with things, and even that in itself is so interesting, how families and how different people respond to what life throws at them – it’s ordinary people living extraordinary circumstances, and that’s where all kind of drama comes from. In this case, it’s very small, very ordinary, and I guess the story felt like it needed to be told maybe as a reflection. Also, it was a lovely time to make something with my cousin – she’s produced it and I wrote and directed it. A lot of people do stuff with something personal, don’t they? I think it helps you find your directorial voice or it can help streamline what you want to say. Maybe next time it will be something completely different.

“When you’re in it, you’re just living it, right?”

What surprised you the most about being on the other side of the camera?

I knew what my strengths and weaknesses would be, so I was very grateful to have a team who was so amazing and could pick up my weaknesses and point me in the right direction. I knew my strengths were going to be how to communicate with the actors and how to get great performances out; what surprised me was the edit and the postproduction. When you’ve written something you think it’s really tight but you watch it back and realise it’s not working and you’re going to have to make some big cuts – it’s like killing your babies! [laughs] So, I was surprised at how happy I was to pull the film apart and completely change it.

But the biggest surprise has been how long it’s taken. We filmed it when I was pregnant and now it’s finished, my daughter is three! When it’s a passion project, everyone is doing it on the side, in the evening, for no money, in their spare time, so you’re just waiting on everyone’s schedules and things to align. An incredible team of people have come together to help make this – it’s been in equal parts joyous and frustrating, but I’m so glad it’s out now!

Would you like to do this again? Directing?

Honestly? As we wrapped filming, I was like, “I love directing, can’t wait to do it again!” and then, after post-production, I thought, “I’m never doing this ever again! [laughs]. Now that people are watching it and responding to it in this way, I’m starting to have lots of other ideas! [laughs]

What is the bravest thing you’ve ever done in your life?

What do we measure as brave? It’s sometimes just the smallest things, isn’t it? The vulnerability that it takes to say that you’re going to love somebody, and fall in love, and pick up the pieces when things aren’t great – these things are some of the bravest things you do in life.

I don’t even know if I am brave – it takes lots of other people to encourage me to do things! Having my family of friends and relatives around – that helps me be brave, I suppose!

When do you feel safe?

In my little cocoon, with my family – this is safety. But also, with my friends. For example, filming season two of “The Gentlemen” we had some incredible experiences, amazing shoots. Then I got home and went to my husband’s bar, and our friends were there, people were playing traditional Irish music – it was such a different vibe and I was like, “This is home. This is safe.”

When do you feel the most self-confident?

I guess, when you’ve auditioned for something and you really want it and they say “yes”!

What are you reading right now?

I am reading “The Bee Sting” by Paul Murray, it’s really good. I hilariously took this book on holiday with me, and my husband laughed at me and said, “Do you really think that, with our daughter, you’re going to read 600 pages?”. He was right – I’ve read 80 pages in two and a half weeks.

Just take your time, that book is a masterpiece! What does it mean to you to feel comfortable in your own skin?

It is forging your own path, I think, not listening to the noise; whether that’s to do with fashion, or what you should or shouldn’t look like, or eat, or who you should vote for… It’s about not listening to all the noise and instead just finding what resonates with you. I think that’s really important. In this day and age, there’s not enough encouragement to do that.

What is your happy place?

There’s a good hill that I walk up with my dog, I can see view of the city that I live in from there. It’s a good day when I’ve gone up there, had a good look and have a nice deep breath.

Photos & Video by Johnny Carrano.

Styling by Grace Radhakrishnan.

Makeup by Charlotte Hayward.

Hair by Allie Harknett.

Thanks to CLD Communications.

Look #1: Dress: Magda Butrym.

Look #2: Leather Skirt and Jacket: Joseph: Bodysuit: ERES; Heels: Amina Muaddi.

Look #3: Bralette: ERES; Jeans: Calvin Klein; Heels: Jimmy Choo. 

Look #4: Dress: The Own Studio; Heels: Casadei; Jewellery: Sonia Petroff.