‘Awards Chatter’ Podcast — Jodie Comer (‘The Last Duel’ & ‘Help’)

Jodie Comer is an Emmy and BAFTA award-winning and Golden Globe and SAG award-nominated English actress who is widely regarded as one of the most talented and exciting young performers in the business today. Phoebe Waller-Bridge has called her “a once-in-a-generation actress.” Matt Damon has opined, “She’s truly incredible. Directors are going to be beating down her door because she’s a generational talent.” And Shawn Levy has said of her rise, “It’s seriously something that doesn’t happen, except maybe every 10 years, where a new actor arrives and doesn’t feel like anyone you’ve seen before.”

Best known for playing the charismatic psychopath Villanelle opposite Sandra Oh’s Eve on the BBC America drama series Killing Eve, for which she became the youngest-ever winner of the best actress in a drama series Emmy in 2019 at the age of just 26, Comer is coming off a packed 2021 in which she played her first lead in a big studio Hollywood film, Levy’s video game adaptation Free Guy; received widespread acclaim for her portrayal of a COVID-era nursing home worker on the limited series Help, which aired on Channel 4 in Britain and soon will be available on Acorn TV in the U.S.; and was widely lauded for her turn as a 14th century woman who dares to accuse a man of rape in Ridley Scott’s film The Last Duel, a performance for which she is now garnering best actress Oscar buzz.

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Over the course of our conversation, the 28-year-old reflected on her accidental path to acting and the important role that the actor Stephen Graham, a fellow Liverpudlian with whom she has collaborated several times (most recently on Help), played in her rise; how she came to Killing Eve, and what she has found most challenging and rewarding about playing Villanelle; why she used to fear that she wouldn’t have the opportunity to act in films, and what it has been like since she was given that chance; and much more.

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Past guests include Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey, Lorne Michaels, Meryl Streep, George Clooney, Barbra Streisand, Robert De Niro, Angelina Jolie, Eddie Murphy, Gal Gadot, Warren Beatty, Jennifer Lawrence, Snoop Dogg, Julia Roberts, Stephen Colbert, Reese Witherspoon, Aaron Sorkin, Margot Robbie, Ryan Reynolds, Nicole Kidman, Denzel Washington, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Matthew McConaughey, Kate Winslet, Jimmy Kimmel, Natalie Portman, Kevin Hart, Jennifer Lopez, Elton John, Judi Dench, Quincy Jones, Jane Fonda, Tom Hanks, Michelle Pfeiffer, Justin Timberlake, Elisabeth Moss, RuPaul, Cate Blanchett, Jimmy Fallon, Renee Zellweger, Michael Moore, Emilia Clarke, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Helen Mirren, Tyler Perry, Sally Field, Spike Lee, Lady Gaga, J.J. Abrams, Emma Stone, Al Pacino, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Jerry Seinfeld, Dolly Parton, Will Smith, Kerry Washington, Sacha Baron Cohen, Carol Burnett, Norman Lear, Keira Knightley, David Letterman, Sophia Loren, Hugh Jackman, Melissa McCarthy, Ken Burns, Jodie Foster, Conan O’Brien, Amy Adams, Ben Affleck, Zendaya, Will Ferrell, Glenn Close, Michael B. Jordan, Jessica Chastain, Jay Leno, Saoirse Ronan, Billy Porter, Brie Larson, Kevin Feige and Tina Fey.