Given that Úrsula Corberó spent four years wielding guns in the smash-hit Netflix crime drama Money Heist, you’d think she might have some tips for Eddie Redmayne, her co-star in new TV thriller The Day of the Jackal.
Redmayne, playing against type as a cold-blooded assassin, has been vocal about the amount of training his role required. But Corberó, 35, was just pleased she didn’t have to pull the trigger this time. “When I read the script, I felt very lucky that I was not the one handling the gun,” she says. “After Money Heist, everybody thinks that I’m a superhero, a badass woman.”
Playing Nuria, the trophy wife to Redmayne’s Jackal, was a welcome change. “Action is exhausting and it’s not very rewarding in terms of acting. Also, it’s dangerous, you get injured and, with the explosions, sometimes it’s scary.”
“Action is exhausting and it’s not very rewarding.”
While there’s plenty of violence in this updated take on Frederick Forsyth’s 1971 novel, Corberó’s character is a chance to explore the professional hitman’s softer side. “One of the things that really caught my attention was that this new Jackal is a more humanised Jackal,” she says. “He has a relationship, he has more things to lose.”
Corberó made her name as a comedic actress in her native Spain before she was cast as trigger-happy Tokyo in La Casa de Papel, aka Money Heist. Running for five seasons, it was Netflix’s most-watched non-English language show until Squid Game came along. Redmayne clearly didn’t get the memo, though. “Eddie hasn’t watched Money Heist,” Corberó laughs. “I didn’t know there are still people that haven’t seen it.”
“Eddie Redmayne made me a better actress.”
The team behind The Day of the Jackal, however, had clearly been watching. “It was crazy,” she says. “They offered me the character and I was the one asking for an audition.” On a Zoom call from Argentina, where her boyfriend and fellow actor Chino Darín lives, she peppered director Brian Kirk and screenwriter Ronan Bennett with questions. “I was surprised they were thinking of me, when everyone else was only offering me action roles.”
Shooting on location in Budapest and Croatia was “very intense”, she says. “I’m not going to lie. I always feel a little bit more vulnerable when I’m far away from home.” But having Redmayne as a screen partner made up for it. “It was a joy. I learned a lot with this project,” she says. “Eddie made me a better actress.”
Day of the Jackal is on Sky Atlantic now
