John Hiscock meets Killing Eve star Jodie Comer
As the psychopathic killer Villanelle in BBC America’s darkly comic espionage thriller Killing Eve, British actress Jodie Comer has amassed a huge cult following of fans who love her for her character’s lethal smile and diabolical assassinations.
But 26-year-old Jodie could not be more different from her on-screen character.
A sweet and lovely Liverpudlian, she still lives at home with her mum and dad and gets homesick when she is away on location filming.
“I am away for a good majority of the year and there’s no place I would rather be than at home in my pajamas with my brother Charlie watching the telly – that is my complete happy space,” she says.
“I just want to come home and do normal stuff and get back to reality. It definitely keeps me grounded. I am a home bird and a lot of people from Liverpool are that way – they have a very big sense of pride about where they are from and family is extremely important to them.”
An Everton supporter, she was a regular at home games at Goodison Park although, she says, she has not been there lately.
She enjoys her home life in Liverpool with her group of girlfriends and she relates to the city’s musical heritage.” I’ve researched it and I love The Beatles, particularly George Harrison, who was my favorite Beatle.
“There are so many Beatles tours in Liverpool that I’d like to do and in the Cavern Club they have a Beatles tribute that I am still trying to get the girls to go with me on a Saturday when I can manage to get us all together. But God, Liverpool has changed so much since the days of the Beatles. But it is wonderful and it’s really coming into its own in a sense of culture and independent restaurants and bars. But I am envious that I wasn’t born in the swinging 60s. That would have been fun.”
Despite the attention she gets from men in pubs and on the streets, particularly when she goes back to her hometown, 25-year-old Jodie doesn’t have a man in her life.
“I am very much work focused at the minute and it’s funny, because I feel like if I meet someone at the right time that would be great, but at the moment I think I am cool with just being by myself. It’s just nice,” she says.
We are talking in a hotel in Beverly Hills, where Jodie is on a flying visit with the second series of Killing Eve about to air.
She is colourfully dressed in a pink top and bright yellow flared trousers and is cheerful and friendly, talking happily about how her life has changed since she landed the role of the ruthless assassin Villanelle.
“What I love about Villanelle is she is many characters within one and she has enabled me to hopefully show some versatility that people may not have expected from me beforehand,” she says.
“And there has been such an overwhelming response to Killing Eve that when I meet people, they are enthusiastic about talking about it and they enjoy it so much. So it’s been wonderful to have all sorts of conversations and I find going to the set is fulfilling because not every day is the same; there is always something thrown my way to challenge me with. So I think I have really been able to grow and learn more about myself.”
Killing Eve, Season Two is now showing Sundays at 8pm PST on AMC.
