Jodie Comer was plagued by sleepless nights while playing a rape victim on stage.
Jodie Comer was plagued by sleepless nights while playing a rape victim on stage
The 30-year-old actress, who was propelled to fame in Hollywood after her breakout role as assassin Villanelle in ‘Killing Eve’, took on the gruelling role of a barrister in one-woman theatre show ‘Prima Facie’ in 2019, in which she played lawyer Tessa, who defends men accused of sexual assault before she is sexually assaulted by a colleague.
She told The Sunday Times about how hard she found the part: “My sleep was all over the place.
“It’s tricky when you do something emotional. You think, ‘OK, it’s not real.’ “But there is some part that tricks your body into believing that what you’re saying and feeling is a real experience.
“It becomes important to take care of yourself. With theatre it’s kinetic. You’re sharing space with 900 people.
“It’s … it’s tough. But clearly something I love putting myself through.”
Playwright Suzie Miller’s ‘Prima Facie’ was nominated for five Laurence Olivier Awards, with wins for Best New Play and Best Actress for Jodie, who subsequently won a Tony Award for the same role on Broadway.
Jodie has spent her career drawn to other gruelling roles, with her character Marguerite de Carrouges in Ridley Scott’s ‘The Last Duel’ the victim of rape.
She also played a hard-pushed caregiver in Channel 4’s bleak Covid drama ‘Help’, in which she is left floundering in a care home with patients stricken by the illness amid an overwhelmed NHS.
Her latest role in survival drama ‘The End We Start From’ sees her play a panicked new mum who flees with her baby in a flooded London after a climate crisis.
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