'It's got a whole life of its own': Keira Knightley on 'totally lovely' way Love Actually has become a Christmas tradition

Keira Knightley has become a part of many families' Christmas traditions around the world, thanks to her starring role in the film Love Actually.

It's something that even 21 years after the movie's release, still appears to shock and delight the actress.

"I mean, Love Actually, is a part of other people's Christmases – it's absolutely amazing," she tells 9honey Celebrity on the red carpet in London.

Watch the video above.

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"It's just this film that sort of grown into this whole... it's got a whole life of its own, it's totally lovely."

The actress reflected on the hit rom-com while promoting her new Netflix spy thriller series Black Doves, which is also set around Christmas time.

Knightley – who has previously said she's only ever seen Love Actually once – tells 9honey Celebrity there's only one Christmas tradition in her household.

"As far as my own Christmas traditions [go], we don't have any, we eat lots. We eat lots, I mean, that's it really – minced pies, I've already had two, very exciting," she says.

In Black Doves, the actress plays spy Helen Webb whose life threatens to fall apart as she and colleague Sam Young (played by Ben Whishaw) unravel a murder mystery.

"Just the whole concept of this kind of Tory minister's wife who's actually this deep undercover spy, I just it made me laugh," she tells 9honey Celebrity.

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"And I think the fact that you've got this kind of quite serious spy thriller, but also there's this kind of level of humour and wit to it, which is really unusual to kind of get that in something, I was very excited by it," Knightley continues.

Knightley, who is also an executive producer on the six-episode series, says she signed on after reading the first draft of the first episode in "two seconds".

"I literally read it, I mean, in about two seconds and just thought, 'Woah!'," she explains.

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While writer Joe Barton didn't intentionally begin writing it for Knightley, he tells 9honey Celebrity she may have been in his subconscious thanks to her Christmas movie.

Barton wrote the show's first draft "on a whim" between Christmas and New Years last year.

"I don't know if I wrote with anyone in mind when I first wrote the first script [but] I probably had watched Love Actually, because it was Christmas, so maybe," he laughs.

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"But yeah, she came on board really, really early. So from after the first draft of the first episode, it was always Keira," he says.

"So, I wrote basically the whole show with her in mind but that first draft, I don't know if I specifically had her in mind, but it may be."

Black Doves drops on Netflix on December 5.

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