‘MY SON THINKS I WEAR A WIG FOR A LIVING’
A NEW BABY FINDS NATASHA O’KEEFFE SLEEP-DEPRIVED BUT HAPPY
From a prostitute to a politician’s wife, Natasha O’keeffe’s character Lizzie Stark has certainly risen through the Peaky Blinders ranks since the show started. The end of the fourth series saw Lizzie give birth to Tommy Shelby’s daughter Ruby, and in this series we’ll see her support Tommy, played by Cillian Murphy, in his new role as Labour MP for Birmingham.
In real life, Natasha, 32, lives with her husband, Gameface actor Dylan Edwards, who she met at drama school. The couple have a three-year-old son and welcomed their second child, a daughter, last year.
‘Without sounding really corny, I couldn’t do what I do without him,’ the actress has said of her husband. ‘Especially now that the kids are so young, we’re a tag team.’
Here Natasha opens up about finding it hard to learn her lines while looking after a baby and what she wants for the future of her character…
How has it been working on series five of Peaky Blinders?
I’ve had personal challenges as I have a very young baby and there’s the challenge of remembering lines after not sleeping during the night!
How did you manage to learn the lines when you were sleep deprived?
I swear there’s a hormone that kicks in where you think you’re not able to do it! It ended up absolutely fine and I had such a blast.
Did you have any moments of ‘baby brain’? Actually, the set is such a calm environment that it probably helped the process. It was less rowdy this year! My son’s growing into an age where you can communicate with him and he came on to set the last season. I was wearing a wig and now he thinks I wear a wig for a living, like that’s my job!
Peaky Blinders is about a fictionalised notorious, violent family. What dodgy deeds have you got up to?
I hung out with some naughty kids when I was younger, but I didn’t get up to anything too naughty myself. I grew up in quite a rough area, but I was a bit of a goody two shoes!
If Peaky Blinders were to end, how would you like your character’s journey to end?
Well Lizzie has gone from prostitute to lady of the manor – her journey’s been vast and outstanding for her. Perhaps some more growth. She’s a politician’s wife, so a politician herself, maybe?!