What To Expect From The Assassin, According To The Cast

In The Assassin, Keeley Hawes swaps the British countryside in her recent Austen costume drama for sun soaked Greece. But this is by no means an idyll: after a thorny reunion with her estranged son Edward (Freddie Highmore), now dating a billionaire’s daughter, former assassin Julie (Hawes) is under pursuit. 

This mother-son duo (and their even-more-strained relationship) is at the centre of The Assassin. Rounding out the cast are Shalom Brune-Franklin as Edward’s girlfriend Kayla, Devon Terrell as her brother Ezra and Alan Dale as their father Aaron, alongside Gina Gershon, Jack Davenport, Gerald Kyd and more.

Ahead of The Assassin premiering on Prime Video next week (25 July), we sat down with Keeley Hawes, Freddie Highmore, Shalom Brune-Franklin and Devon Terrell to find out more. But first, take a look at the trailer.

C&TH Meets The Cast Of The Assassin

Can you summarise The Assassin in a nutshell?

Keeley Hawes: No, there’s nothing ‘nutshell’ about anything when I start talking about it!

Freddie Highmore: I’ll give it a go. Julie, who is a retired hit woman, and her son Edward are somewhat estranged, but he goes to visit her in her idyllic island retreat to try and begin the process of mending their relationship. When he gets there, things from Julie’s past that also tie into Edward’s past and present come to the forefront. Rather than have those conversations immediately, they get somewhat postponed as they are sent off around Europe on a series of adventures and thrilling escapades.

Keeley Hawes behind the scenes on The Assassin. (Prime Video)

How would you describe your characters?

Keeley Hawes: I love Julie. When I read the script, I didn’t really know what to expect. It was called ‘The Hermit’ and I’d been told that it was about a woman who was basically living as a hermit and I didn’t know anything else about it. But you find out quite quickly that this woman is sort of everything I’d like to think I’m not, which is always fun. She is brash, truthful and authentic; she’s not afraid to say it like it is. She’s a woman who’s been living in very much a male world, which makes her unusual. She’s also a mother to Freddie’s character, Edward – but she’s not maternal. She hasn’t treated her son as a child; always more of an equal. (So sort of the opposite of me; I pride myself on being a good mother!) And there are these unexpected things about her that are such fun to play.

Freddie Highmore: Edward is someone who has got himself into lots of sticky situations. Not necessarily through being a bad person, just making bad decisions at many points in his life. He is not talented, and does not need to be talented at any assassin or assassin-adjacent tasks, which was great for me! I could jump into the water – as I do at the end of the pilot – with complete freedom, rather than needing to look as elegant as Keeley did. So that was great, though over the course of the show, he is meant to buck up a little bit. Julie kind of realises that her son is a person who is in his 30s, and faces that reality.

Shalom Brune-Franklin: Kayla is the daughter of a billionaire who made his money in mining in Australia. When we meet her, she is sunning herself on her brother Ezra’s (Terell) yacht just off the coast of a beautiful Greek island. She believes she’s there just to meet her mother in law: have a little Greek salad, meet the mother in law, and then go home. But then this epic shootout happens, and she is thrown into a whole new reality. Meanwhile, she’s having to navigate her relatively new relationship with her fiance Edward (Highmore), as well as meeting her mother in law for the first time! Her journey across the series is about trying to help the best she can while not losing herself. She has a very strong moral code.

Devon Terrell: When we first meet Ezra, he’s an incredibly wealthy young man with his dad’s money. I think he’s in a place in his life where he just wants more and more power. He feels he’s quite competitive with his sister (Brune-Franklin), because, you know, they’re siblings in general, but he also wants to always have the upper hand. He’s a very arrogant young man who thinks the world owes him something. The journey that he goes on is very, very unexpected.

Kayla (SHALOM BRUNE-FRANKLIN) and Edward (FREDDIE HIGHMORE) in The Assassin. (Prime Video)

Devon and Shalom, how did you go about forging your sibling dynamic?

Shalom Brune-Franklin: Well, we knew each other before The Assassin; we’ve known each other for over 10 years. So that was already all there – the familiarity and comfortability as soon as you get to set. That was great, because it was all already taken care of.

Devon Terrell: We could rely on our friendship. But I also love Shalom as a performer. She’s my favourite person to work with as an actor. She’s so kind: I remember having days where I couldn’t remember my lines. And she’d say, ‘Just breathe, calm down.’ She is such a giving actor. It’s also really nice to work with one of your best mates! You rarely get to do that ever in your career.

Julie (KEELEY HAWES) in The Assassin. (Prime Video)

What did you do to prepare for your role?

Keeley Hawes: There wasn’t a lot of preparation time. When you’re doing TV, you tend to find out on the day what you’re doing, and then you do it. It’s a bit like learning a dance. We’re not supposed to know she’s an assassin. I mean, she’s no longer an assassin – she’s put that behind her. She’s living a completely different life. So it’s quite interesting when she finds her skills again!

Freddie Highmore: Keeley was pretty exceptional at pulling off many of the stunts herself!

Shalom Brune-Franklin: It was really helpful having worked with Harry and Jack Williams (the series creators) to understand the tone. Knowing the tone of The Tourist and The Assassin being similar was really helpful to be able to launch straight in and know what we’re going for.

Devon Terrell: I was watching a lot of The White Lotus at that time. Not that it was a huge influence, but seeing affluent people and how they act was helpful. In my research, I was trying to look at certain spaces where people don’t look below themself, they only look above. That’s Ezra. His whole thing is ‘always get higher in life’ – and that means more money rather than better relationships. I really wanted the character to be as vain as possible. So anything to do that. And no carbs.

DEVON TERRELL Stars as Ezra in The Assassin. (Prime Video)

What was the vibe on set?

Devon Terrell: As a whole, filming was amazing. If I could shoot everything in Athens, I would. When we had time off, we could go to a little Greek island and just do something amazing on the weekend. It’s such a vibrant city as well. But I would say, on set, it was hilarious. We were always laughing, even though it was quite intense. Every scene kind of went in different directions. But it was an amazing experience on the cruiser. The people could not be lovelier.

Shalom Brune-Franklin: The highlight for me was working with the Greek crew. They just know how to live! They have that work-life balance figured out – which is probably why they all live to 100, to be honest. Some of the best days on set were on the yachts and the boats and the things that we got to do, because they’re ‘pinch me’ moments: you can’t believe you’re getting paid to do something like that. It’s awesome.

Favourite filming locations?

Freddie Highmore: The boat was good. We had a couple of boats at different points. Yachts, I guess! The sets were amazing. I remember a mountain top one, this huge set piece, that appears a few episodes down the line. We filmed in Greece, and the government and the local authorities allowed us to film in so many amazing places I don’t think any of us thought we were going to get permission to be in. As a result, I think it looks absolutely amazing, and you do get the mix we’d always hoped for: the high stakes thriller engine and the splashiness of that, while also making time for the more meaningful, emotional moments.

Shalom Brune-Franklin: On the ocean, on the boat… Actually, they also built a set of the yacht’s interior at a studio near the port in Athens, and that was really fun. We had a good two week stint in there. Everybody felt like they were really getting to know each other! We all got a bit silly. The set itself was amazing; Scott Bird, the designer, did such a good job. He worked on The Tourist as well. He’s so talented.

Devon Terrell: I don’t want to spoil anything, but there were certain locations where you would just walk into the space and feel a different kind of presence about yourself. That was an amazing thing about the crew: from the costume department to makeup to being on set, you didn’t really have to do much as an actor. They made us look rich; never had that feeling! We’d just come to set, put the clothes on, live in that world and you’d really believe it. So yeah, not a lot of acting for me – just smile and drink some wine.

Edward (FREDDIE HIGHMORE) and Julie (KEELEY HAWES) in The Assassin. (Prime Video)

Which episode are you most excited for viewers to see?

Keeley Hawes: I’m excited for people to see Alan Dale and Gina Gerald Kidd; they are spectacular. And David, he is absolutely brilliant, as well as Shalom and Devon of course. As all of these people unravel towards the end of the series, it’s so great to see the multi faceted sides of them. There’s a lot to come. There’s a great fight in episode two. And I’m excited for viewers to see Freddie’s leap into the sea.

Freddie Highmore: That’s not always a good sign on set, when you make everyone laugh! I’m excited for viewers to see everything coming together. There is a big mystery that Harry and Jack set up so brilliantly, and sometimes you watch shows where the end doesn’t quite pay off the ambitious setup. But I think The Assassin achieves it, and brings everything together in a really exciting way.

Shalom Brune-Franklin: Episode two is my favourite. I like the element of them all being trapped on the boat together, not being able to escape one another. And it’s so funny! Just imagine being trapped with your family on a boat for an extended period of time. I don’t know what your relationship is like with your family, but I think it’s safe to say Kayla wants to jump overboard.

Devon Terrell: When I read The Assassin, my favourite was episode four. All the episodes feel so different in a really wonderful way. I love the pacing of The Assassin: it’s so entertaining all the time. When I read it, I wanted to turn the page straight away, just to get to the end. It feels like that as a show as well.

The Assassin premieres on Prime Video on 25 July 2025.

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