Peacock’s The Day of the Jackal featured an incredible performance by Lashana Lynch as Bianca Pullman, the dogged MI6 agent tasked with tracking down the titular assassin. Audiences followed not only Bianca’s investigation, but the way it turned her into a completely different person that her husband Paul and daughter Jasmine struggled to recognize. Unfortunately, that led to the worst posslble outcome for Bianca.
In the Day of the Jackal Season 1 finale, Bianca quit MI6 and recommitted herself to her family. But with higher-ups looking for a way out, Isobel convinced Bianca to return to the field — where she was eventually shot and killed by the Jackal while trying to convince him to surrender. CBR spoke to Lashana Lynch about what she enjoyed most about playing the character and how she felt Bianca played against storytelling tropes.
CBR: What connected you to the role of Bianca in The Day of the Jackal initially? How did you envision her when you first signed on?
Lashana Lynch: I was doing the opposite to finding a role that was full of stunts and drama and chasing and weaponry — and when you are actively seeking the opposite and the other direction comes your way, you can’t help but investigate. You read the first three episodes and you think, okay, this character’s amazing. The story is going to be amazing. Eddie Redmayne’s involved. We have brilliant directors. It’s a [co-production] between the UK and the US, which I always find such an interesting marriage of the two.
I was looking for something that was different, that was gritty, that celebrated women in a different way, and that dismantled that “strong Black woman” trope that has just been so shoehorned into storytelling these days. When I saw Bianca was unraveling before our eyes, I was even more interested in diving into what that could do for audiences and how much we could be pushing the needle forward, just by her existence. And that was just what was on the page.
Outside of that, I thought wow, I’m going to be a co-executive producer on this. I have so much to say. I have so many skill sets to dive into. There’s so much I care about within storytelling and screen and TV that are necessary conversations as a woman in this space. And I wanted that time across 10 episodes to have the necessary discussions with the studios about what these female stories look like, and just how effective and representative they are of women in the world. Servicewomen, especially, which this is my third time playing a servicewoman. I had a lot to say and I didn’t realize that it would come in this form, but now [that] it has, it makes complete sense.
This version of The Day of the Jackal updates elements of the story for relevancy, and Bianca is part of that. So how much of the original novel or the 1970s film were you able to reference?
With me being a woman, a Black woman, a modern-day woman, we have that included in the script. It was a very different time when the original book and film came out, and fans of that movie and the book will see that we pay homage very nicely within the show. But just by virtue of me being who I am, I knew that there was only so far I could go with the source material. There’s so much that I would have to draw [on] that is new and a fresh perspective and that would give us as modern-day audiences a chance to really sit with her differently. There’s lovely influences and examples in the original. But for me, I had to focus on the modern.
I think Jackal as a character nicely focuses on a little bit of the modern, but pays so much homage to the original. I think it’s a nice balance to have Bianca be that force that helps audiences today really feel like she’s relatable and that you can stick with her for 10 episodes.
But also that you kind of wish [for] — that back in the ’70s, ’80s you would see a Bianca-type character, and not just in a Jackie Brown or something like that. In every single story where there is a detective or a policewoman or an agent. What would it be like if she was there? What would it be like if we had a Bianca every single time? It would change the landscape of how we view cinema and TV. So [my approach] was focusing on the modern and hopefully making this develop its own legacy so that 20, 30, 40 years from now, this could be the example.
Eddie is an absolute dream to work with, as an actor and as a fellow producer. We were determined from the beginning to ensure that both of these characters’ journeys run nicely in parallel, so you can see the characteristics that they both possess and the way in which they approach their work and their personal life is similar, in a way that makes you question your morals as the audience member.
Some episodes we wanted — and we spoke very, very quite seriously about this — we wanted you to really root for Bianca, because she’s on the right side of the line. She’s here to protect the world and he’s here to do the opposite. Well, others would say that. [The Jackal] wouldn’t say he’s not here to protect the world. He would say that’s exactly what his job is. But we saw that there’s more dynamism within having these two characters have this respect for each other that is unbeknownst to them.
The reason why Bianca is so fascinated with the Jackal is because he’s so incredibly sophisticated in the way he approaches his work. And I like that me and Eddie were able to not only do that as actors separately, but we were able to really dive into the necessary conversations as producers on the show to develop something that would stand the test of time… We’re no under no illusions that, with TV, there’s a risk of it lagging slightly and you get to halfway through and you’re like, “I’m not interested anymore.”
But here the early conversations were about how we captivate audiences and keep them interested and keep them questioning the darkness in the script, the acting, the cinematography, the prosthetics, the costume. That darkness was something that we gripped onto, in order for audiences to feel like they’re a little bit scared of watching the show, but also a good scared that would make them feel like they can stick with us.
