Jodie Comer charms as assassin Villanelle
Jodie Comer brings warmth to killer Villanelle.
Connection between adversaries grows on BBC America’s “Killing Eve”
“You should never tell a psychopath ‘You’re a psychopath.’ ”
That’s the sage advice quirky assassin Villanelle (Jodie Comer) gave MI-6 investigator Eve Polastri (Sandra Oh) during their first conversation in Sunday’s episode of BBC America’s Killing Eve (8 ET/PT).
Eve was the only person in the British intelligence community who deduced that the hired killer leaving a trail of bodies throughout Europe was a woman. That bit of sleuthing impressed the culprit and created the cat-and-mouse dynamic that defines the series, which already has been renewed for a second season.
The dinner scene featuring Villanelle’s advice was Comer’s callback audition, and her first meeting with Oh.
“As soon as I went in the audition room, I felt like she wanted me to do a good job,” says the 25-year-old British actress last seen on American TV playing Elizabeth of York (the first Tudor queen and the mother of King Henry VIII) on Starz’s The White Princess.
Comer, who cut short a vacation in Barcelona to fly to Los Angeles, was impressed when Oh provided food and utensils so she wouldn’t have to mime eating. “It was a blueberry pie, which I had pretty much gone through by the time I left,” she adds.
Executive producer Phoebe WallerBridge ( Fleabag) explains why she cast Comer as the stone-cold killer who decompresses from her work by pranking her handler.
“Jodie instantly brought a warmth and a playfulness to a type of character usually associated with cold, creepy detachment,” she says via email. “It was so important that we were charmed by Villanelle in order to earn the moments we were chilled by her. Jodie, with impossible individuality and flare, can do both in an instant.”
Waller-Bridge and Comer fleshed out the character from the novellas by Luke Jennings. While most of the details of her origin story remain intact, the two women are responsible for giving Villanelle a sense of humor. “It was so much fun to be able to have source material, but also have so much freedom in creating her,” Comer says.
Another bonus: Villanelle’s practicalyet-chic wardrobe.
“Thank God, there’s no heels!” she
“She’s being very silly and making sure Eve knows where she is and she’s leaving tracks. I think they’re both curious.”
laughs. “That was another element that I thought was real. It’s great for a beautiful woman to have a sky-high pair of heels and climb up a drainage pipe, but is that real? I don’t know. A huge thing about Villanelle is that you want to believe that you could sit next to her on a bus and not know who she is. Because that’s the reality of (assassins). They blend in. That’s what they do best.”
Villanelle and Eve have had a few brief encounters. Eve watched the assassin kill her former boss on a dance floor. So they clearly have things to say.
“By this point, their fascination with each other is kind of reaching a new level and it’s inevitable that they are going to meet,” Comer says. “That’s what Villanelle wants, and she’s being very silly and making sure Eve knows where she is and she’s leaving tracks. I think they’re both curious. I think Villanelle will go to any extreme to get close to Eve, which she does. You saw what happened to Bill. There’s not a lot that would stop her.”
So who is Villanelle? To borrow a line from the character, that’s a huge question — and there will be answers as Eve’s team begins piecing together her background.
After learning the killer with the French name is actually Oksana, a Russian convict recruited by an Illuminatistyle group to do their dirty business, Eve and her new boss (Fiona Shaw) head to Moscow in the May 13 episode to dig further into her background.
To Villanelle’s surprise and delight, Eve sees through the carefully crafted disguise of someone who so devoid of empathy that she has to feign emotion by mimicking people around her.
“I don’t think Villanelle gets told ‘no’ very often, and that intrigues her even more,” Comer says. “Would she actually hurt Eve? We already know the only person important to Villanelle is Villanelle herself. That’s the bottom line. But as the audience watches the show, I feel like it’s up to them to figure out if this woman’s trying to find Eve to kill her.”