Killing Eve took a deep dive — well, as deep as it could go while maintaining some mystery — into assassin Villanelle’s past in Season 3, and Jodie Comer’s work was recognized with an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. (She won that category in 2019.)
That’s just one of eight nods — including for Outstanding Drama Series — the spy thriller received this year; Sandra Oh (as ex-agent Eve Polastri) is up against Comer, and Fiona Shaw (as MI6’s Carolyn Martens) is vying for Outstanding Supporting Actress.
“I think the characters are very authentic. I have incredible fun acting in the show and playing this character and I hope that that’s what resonates and that people are enjoying it ultimately,” Comer tells TV Insider. “People are so invested in [all the characters], and I think that’s a huge testament to the production and the whole team, the effort that goes into making it. … I want people to enjoy it. I want people to get lost in it, the absurdity and the truth.”
Here, Comer looks back on the turning point of Season 3 for her character and Villanelle and Eve’s relationship and shares what she knows about what’s ahead.
Did this year’s nomination feel any different from last year, especially after winning?
Jodie Comer: Honestly, I was just really shocked. It’s such an honor to be nominated again, especially after winning last year. That people think I deserve to be up there again was really, really lovely, to be there with Sandra and the rest of the nominees in such an incredible category.
Killing Eve keeps peeling back the layers of Villanelle and what she wants. How did you get into her mindset for Season 3?
I always knew it was going to come up. They’d hinted about Villanelle’s past and her family coming up, but to be honest, we didn’t really know in what capacity that would be until when we were filming Episode 3 because the script was changing so much up until we actually shot it. What I was really excited about was this opportunity to explore something new. That’s been the biggest challenge coming back for each season, staying true to what people love but also acknowledging and moving and growing with these characters and trying to do it in an authentic, realistic way because people want to see more into Villanelle, but then we never want to get too close that she loses her mystery and her sense of danger.
How I got into her psyche, first off, I felt like I had the groundwork from the past two seasons. And then we had a wonderful director, Shannon Murphy, who directed 5 and 6, and she was just so involved in the material and the characters and brought such a great energy and lots of ideas, so to be honest, I kind of clung on to her for dear life and trusted her judgments and her direction.
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