Lashana Lynch Won’t Be Typecast

12th November, 2024

Words by Rebecca Cope
Photography by Rachell Smith
Styling by Karen Clarkson

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A warrior queen, Bob Marley’s widow, the first female 007 and a Marvel superhero: Lashana Lynch is one of the most versatile actresses of her generation. So don’t think for a second that because she’s playing another MI6 agent in the upcoming Day of the Jackal, a spy caper opposite Eddie Redmayne out now on Sky, that she’s rehashing her role as Naomi in the last James Bond film, No Time To Die.

“I wanted to ensure that Bianca wasn't just a clone of Naomi,” she explains on Zoom. “Bianca’s family life was my opportunity to show what's behind the mask. Behind all the grit, power and strength, there is a lot of vulnerability, softness and wholesomeness.”

The 10-part series, based on the novel of the same name, sees Lynch cast MI6 weapons expert Bianca, who is dogged in her pursuit of Eddie Redmayne’s faceless assassin, the Jackal. Their dynamic makes for a thrilling game of cat and mouse, with their relationships with their respective families shown to suffer as a consequence.

The series marks the first time that Lynch has also sat in the co-producer chair, something which allowed her to steer the narrative so that it was as realistic of the black experience as possible, something she is clearly passionate about. “I come from a really wonderful home,” she shares. “To be able to represent that on British TV was such an important milestone. I felt protective for Bianca, and Paul and Jasmine [Bianca’s husband and daughter], I wanted to ensure their characters felt lived in, so that you almost felt like you were in the house with these real people.” This extended to Lynch helping on the location and set design, including incorporating black art works onto the family’s walls, and stocking the cupboards with the right tins, pots and pans.

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Having been in the industry for over a decade, Lynch was also passionate about advocating for her female co-stars as a co-producer. “One thing I really enjoyed was speaking to the female actors on set and translating their ideas, to help them maintain a semblance of naturalism and anchoring that within their narrative,” she explains. Though she did also have a great working relationship with Redmayne, describing them both as sharing a “granular” approach to things. “I knew immediately we’d get on,” she laughs. “It was a joy.”

Co-producing was an inevitability for the multi-hyphenate Lynch, a Sylvia Young alumna who started out in music before getting into acting. “I've just been waiting for the opportunity for me to explore this avenue,” she explains. “It allows me to have such different and unique conversations with the directors from the jump. Skipping forward a year and thinking, ‘is this going to work in the edit?’ ‘What's the colouring and grading going to be like?’ They're all such important things to me. But when you're not in the space to have those conversations, I felt slightly like I was muzzling myself from not exploring other parts of my creativity.”

The music was something she had strong opinions on, and her forcefulness has ensured that the show has one of the most impactful scores of recent years. The opening scenes of episode one pulse with Radiohead’s ‘Everything In Its Right Place’, in a similar vein to how modern music is used in shows like Peaky Blinders. “Our music supervisor was so receptive to hearing about the reasoning behind why we should have, for example, dark sound, as well as female voices, or Celeste for the opening credits,” she explains. “It’s something that I really cared about, coming from my previous life and a musical standpoint.” When I ask what she’d hope her co-stars might have learnt from her on set, she’s thoughtful. “Collaboration,” she finally settles on.

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Throughout our conversation I am struck by Lynch’s positivity. She’s certainly brought that glass half-full mentality to her career, in the face of understandable inequality as a black woman. “At the beginning I felt like that was a responsibility that no one told me I needed to take on board,” she says. “I don't think you can go to work as a black or brown woman and think that your environment is consistently serving you. I was exposed to enough experiences early on in my career to let me know that this would definitely be a journey and that I needed to stick to my guns. I wouldn't say I was naive but I was definitely too hopeful at the start of my career.”

It’s easy to see why. A star pupil, she was the first winner of the Laurence Olivier for second year drama students from Sylvia Young in years – a moment that marked many ‘firsts’ for her. “I remember winning that and thinking, gosh, there’s going to be many firsts in my life,” she says. “I had an inkling that I was going to surprise people. Even if it was for just one moment in my career. And now looking back, that’s happened. I’ve had so many industry firsts.” Does she feel a pressure to keep achieving more and more firsts, I ask? “I don’t feel the need for everything to be a ‘first’ to be honest,” she says thoughtfully. “I just try to enjoy the process and the work!”

Ultimately, for Lynch, she just wants to be proud of her output in years to come. After all, once something is committed to celluloid, it’s there forever. “I’ve been very intentional about what I'm putting out in the world and what is going to represent me in years to come,” she says. “I don’t want to look back in 20 years and think, why did I do that? You have to move intentionally otherwise people will just mould you into whatever they think you should be.”

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That intentionality has seen her go from playing 007 to Matilda’s Miss Honey, Marvel’s Captain Marvel and Bob Marley’s wife, Rita, in the space of a few years. But as well as being choosy, there’s also a degree of trusting the universe too. “My spirit tells me what I need and I feel as though that ‘art imitating life’ thing has happened so vividly for me,” she says. “I was looking for softness, and I got Matilda. I was looking for more of a connection with my Jamaican culture, and I got Rita Marley in One Love. I'm trying to stay as aligned as possible. And even though I was not calling to do more stunts, for some reason, that’s what the world was looking for.”

Unsuprisingly, Lynch looked up to strong, poised black women growing up. “The newsreader Moira Stewart is the first person who comes to mind,” she says. “And Viv from Eastenders and Phylicia Rashad from The Cosby Show. There were just all these poised, elegant, rich in spirit, women that I gravitated towards that taught me that you can be that and still hold your own in a very fierce way, definitely.”

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As for what she hopes to manifest next for her career, it’s a comedy. “I would like to be funny,” she laughs. “To be light on screen and giggle throughout the day. I’ve done a lot of serious roles recently. Everything’s got me on that deep drama journey, and I’m proud of it, but I’d be interested to see what lightness does to me.”

Lightness will undoubtedly be a part of Lynch’s life for the foreseeable, as she is expecting her first child with her husband, Zachary Momoh. She’s certainly in the right mindset to embrace the chaos of a newborn. When I ask her how she’d like to define herself at this moment, she’s thoughtful. “I feel very, very open and free to just explore and allow my life to really teach me what it needs from me and for me to embrace its lessons,” she says philosophically. “We are taught to believe we need to be 100% all the time, but we’re only human and that’s OK.”

The Day of the Jackal is streaming now on Sky