Jodie Comer says her and Sandra Oh’s intimate bedroom scenes in ‘Killing Eve’ were written "much closer" than they were played out.
The two actresses – who play main characters Villanelle and Eve Polastri respectively – have admitted they deliberately "pulled back" during filming because they thought the scenes would be "too much".
Speaking about the final episode of the first season, where both women end up on a bed together, Jodie, 26, told Radio Times magazine: "Do you remember how much work we did on that? It was written as much closer between them than they were.
"We were rehearsing it, and it was like, ‘This is too much, it’s wrong.’
"So there was pull-back. The audience might want it, but you can’t always give them what they want.
"So we were like, ‘Oh my God, it’s two women on a bed.’ And I think that [the director] was concerned about it. But then watch how Eve gets on the bed.
"She gets on the bed like an extremely tired middle-aged lady. She’s like, ‘I’m so tired.’ It’s not erotic at all.
"Definitely Villanelle is thinking it’s going to be one thing, and Eve is implying it’s going to be that, but that’s how she can get her guard down for two seconds."
Jodie is also glad the programme shows her character kicking butt in practical clothing.
She said: "Why would any woman scale a wall in six-inch heels? She’d have sensible shoes on that she could kick someone in the face with."
Sandra quipped: "The focus is unabashedly about the relationship and the psyche of these two female characters.
"There are plenty of shows where there are two women running around doing things.
"But the focus of this show – how much our characters are involved with each other in a deeply psychological way – is what’s different.
"We’ve been investigating and living in the white, male psyche, and suddenly, when something else pops up, you think, ‘Wait, that feels more like me.’ "
Jodie Comer and Sandra Oh ‘pulled back’ on intimate Killing Eve scenes
