Killing Eve’s Jodie Comer has revealed that her death stares are part-inspired from her mother.
Jodie, 27, who plays psychopath Villanelle in the BBC drama, told The Mirror that some of the ‘outrageous’ faces she pulls are from her mother.
She said: ‘Some of the faces I pull are outrageous but my mum is like, ”Definitely seen that one before”.
Like mother like daughter: Killing Eve’s Jodie Comer has revealed that her death stares are inspired from her mother (pictured together)
‘But I’m also like, ”Mum, I get half of them from you”.’
The Liverpudlian actor, who still lives with her parents Jimmy and Donna, also admitted to having a softer side and even apologises to the actors she kills on screen in case she hurt them.
She said: ‘It is always so tense when you go to the scene and say, ”I’m sorry is this sore? Am I hurting you?”.’
Jodie reminisced about a particularly funny scene where Villanelle clamped a man’s groin but said that everyone on set was able to have a ‘giggle about it’.
Keeping it in the family: Jodie, 27, who plays psychopath Villanelle in the BBC drama told The Mirror that some of the ‘outrageous’ faces she pulls are from her mother
She said: ‘Some of the faces I pull are outrageous but my mum is like, ”Definitely seen that one before”
The actor won an Emmy in 2019 for the role which she plays alongside Sandra Oh, Fiona Shaw and Harriet Walter.
And after the latest episode of the dark comedy, fans took to social media to say they were certain she had won herself another of award for her performance.
Fans watched in awe as Villanelle silently battled with her emotions after she killed her mother (Evgenia Dodina) in the kitchen and set fire to the family’s Russian farmhouse before fleeing the scene.
Dozens of viewers took to Twitter to call for Jodie to be given her second Emmy off the back of the stunning performance. The British actress won the 2019 award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her role in the series last year.
‘Emmy award winning’: Fans watched in awe as Villanelle silently battled with her emotions after she killed her mother (Evgenia Dodina) in the kitchen
Psychopath: Villanelle set fire to her family’s farmhouse in Russia, pictured, after killing her mother
Loyal fans: Dozens of viewers took to Twitter to call for Comer to be given her second Emmy off the back of the stunning performance
One posted: ‘Give Jodie Comer that Emmy right now (!!!!!!!) for the last scene in that episode!! #KillingEve.’
Another tweeted: ‘That last scene on the train was just incredible. i think we’ve all had that moment when you are breaking apart but still have to keep it in together. even w/o words you have done it justice, message conveyed. well done Jodie, you deserve another Emmy #KillingEve.’
A third added: ‘The last scene of today episode… Jodie will get that Best Actress again on next Emmys. #KillingEve.’
The fifth episode, which aired in the US on Sunday night and was released on BBC iPlayer this morning for UK viewers, focused solely on Villanelle as she returned to Russia and reconnected with her mother and brother Pyotr (Rob Feldman).
High praise: Fans were quick to praise Comer for her ability to portray her character’s emotional turmoil
She also discovered she now had an extended family including stepfather and stepbrothers and grew close to the youngest, Bor’ka (Temi Blaev).
The drama came to a head when Villanelle confronted her mother over how she was abandoned in an orphanage as a girl, saying ‘don’t pretend you were a mother’.
Hitting back, her mother insisted Villanelle was marked as evil from birth because she ‘did not cry as a baby’.
She added Villanelle had ‘ruined’ her life and had taken her husband from her because he was afraid of Villanelle’s ‘darkness’. ‘He thought you would do something to us,’ the mother revealed, ‘to me’.
Villanelle explained she wasn’t angry at her mother for abandoning her, or for not coming back, but because she was unable to admit that she had darkness inside her.
‘Get out of my house,’ her mother replied. To which Villanelle responded: ‘I think I will have to kill you.’
Matricide: After confronting her mother over how she was raised, Villanelle told her simply: ‘I think I have to kill you’
However unlike other deaths on the show, the murder itself was not shown. Instead the episode cut straight to Villanelle preparing to set the house on fire and a shot of the mother lying dead on the kitchen floor.
The final moments of the episode showed Villanelle silently coming to terms with what she had done.
Speaking to Variety about the episode, Comer said: ‘You can see the regret that she is already feeling but feels she has to go through with it — because I think she feels it’s the only way she feels she can fully kill her past and the woman that she was.’
Writer Suzanne Heathcote added that she wanted an episode that revealed an emotional depth to Villanelle that had not yet been seen.
She said: ‘Villanelle reveals a version of herself — she shows a version of herself to the world — and that’s all the audience has seen up to this point.
‘But this particular area of vulnerability for her is one that is so specific and so unique, it needed its own moment.’