His Dark Materials star Amir Wilson almost stabbed himself accidentally on set

"I had fallen down one of our sets, on a hill, and had the knife in my hand, and was really close to stabbing myself."

By George Lewis and David Opie

18 Dec 2022

His Dark Materials star Amir Wilson has revealed he almost accidentally stabbed himself on set.

The actor, who plays Will Parry on BBC’s fantasy show, spoke exclusively with Digital Spy about the third and final series, which sees his character equipped with a knife.

Despite being a prop, Wilson admitted that he had to be given plastic knives as a safety precaution.

amir wilson, kobna holdbrooksmith, his dark materials season 3

BBC

“I mean, it [the knife] can hurt you, obviously. It’s got a pointed edge. But the sides are blunt,” he told us. “As the show went on, he [Phil, the prop handler] stopped giving me metal knives, and started giving me plastic ones.

“In all fairness, though, I remember, in season 2, I had fallen down one of our sets, on a hill, and had the knife in my hand, and was really close to stabbing myself. It sounds really, really bad.

“And I think after that, he was like ‘Amir, you are not getting a real knife anymore.’ And I was like, ‘Fair enough, Phil. Fair enough.’”

amir wilson, dafne keen, his dark materials season 3

BBC

The eight-episode final series sees Will track down Lyra (Dafne Keen), with Lord Asriel (James McAvoy) waging war against the Authority happening in the background.

Wilson, who also starred in The Secret Garden, also teased the show’s grand finale, revealing that it was “emotional” to film: “The last episode is heavy. It's emotional. I think there'll be a lot of tears and stuff. There certainly was on my part and Dafne's part when we were filming it,” he said.

“I think it's a beautiful, beautiful episode. A really, really beautiful episode. And I think people are going to like it. It had to look like paradise. We went to the south of Spain in Andalusia, and filmed in these amazing, amazing locations,” he continued.

His Dark Materials airs on BBC One in the UK and HBO in the US.