As she accepted her first-ever BAFTA award, for hit drama Killing Eve, Jodie Comer had one hugely important person on her mind – her late nana, Frances, who passed away a week into the filming of the show’s first season.
Dedicating her trophy to her grandmother, the star said her inspirational nana was the reason she become an actor, and used to tell her, “You get it off me, you know.”
“She was the life and soul of everything… I just want to stand up here tonight and say, ‘Nana Frances, you were right all along.'”
Jodie with her late gran, Frances.
Jodie’s meteoric rise since taking on the role of Villanelle in the BBC show is still on the up – and the native Liverpudlian says her new level of fame is still taking a little getting used to.
“There’s definitely been a shift,” she says, citing a “really weird” experience in the US recently, where she was waiting to board a 4am flight.
“There were men waiting for me to sign things,” she says. “They’d been following us around while we were doing press during the week. Woah!
“When does it become normal for strange men to be waiting for you at the airport?
“[But] I think people are now more willing – and wanting – to meet me, rather than me having to convince people that I’m able to do a role. That’s definitely a little shift I’ve sensed.”
In Killing Eve Comer plays Villanelle, a brutal assassin caught in a game of cat-and-mouse with MI6 agent Eve (played by Sandra Oh).
Still, when she’s back home in Liverpool, Jodie (27) tries her best to shake off stardom – so much so that she lives in her childhood home with her parents and little brother.
“I’m a home bird,” she says with a shrug.
“Still with Mum and Dad. There’s no place I’d rather be than at home in my pyjamas with my brother, watching the telly. I get the best of both worlds, but I love Liverpool. I love London, but I like to leave.
“A lot of people from Liverpool are that way. They have a very big sense of pride about where they’re from and family is extremely important.”
But though her fame and popularity is rising, there’s “zero” romance on the horizon – and Jodie reckons she has a fair idea why.
“I’ve played a psychopath! I really don’t get approached at all – which is fine. I’m never in one place long enough!”
Indeed, Jodi has relocated temporarily to the US, where she’s just begun filming an action comedy alongside Ryan Reynolds and New Zealand’s own Taika Waititi.
We can’t wait for that one!
