It’s a weird day to interview Oona Chaplin. The most anticipated film of the year, James Cameron’s Avatar sequel The Way of Water, has just been released, and Chaplin is set to take on a key role in the already filmed third instalment. We’re not talking about that, though. We’re chatting about her new Netflix spy thriller series Treason, which she stars in alongside Daredevil’s Charlie Cox and former Bond girl Olga Kurylenko. It’s the kind of bingeable crime caper that has become synonymous with the BBC over the years (see: Bodyguard, Vigil, or literally anything starring James Nesbitt). However, this Boxing Day, as people roll out of bed heavy with yesterday’s indulgences, many will flick through Netflix, not the terrestrial channels, and land on Treason, where they will spend the next four hours.
“I’m admiring your shelves,” Chaplin tells me of my Zoom background, which has been carefully curated to avoid the messiest parts of my flat. “This is the best corner of my place, too,” she laughs as I come clean. Her peripatetic upbringing (spent mostly in Madrid) has left her with a Spanish-American drawl. She has brown eyes, emphatic eyebrows and dark hair – a result of her Mapuche (indigenous Chilean) heritage on the side of her father, the cinematographer Patricio Castilla. The granddaughter of the silent-film star Charlie Chaplin is a far cry from her moustachioed ancestor. Yet Charlie’s humour is evident in her wry smile and occasional cheeky comment.
