Jodie Comer lied about her language skills to land her role in ‘Killing Eve’.
The 26-year-old actress plays Russian assassin Villanelle in the acclaimed drama series but she admitted she could have missed out on the part if she had been truthful about the fact she didn’t have some of the qualities producers were looking for.
Speaking to Grazia magazine, she said: "When I auditioned [for ‘Killing Eve’] they told me about the languages. You always get told that if you’re asked in an audition if you can ride a horse, you say yes, even if you can’t. That’s what I did with the languages."
The Liverpudlian actress has been praised for her mastery of different accents, which she credits to her father Jimmy.
She said: "Growing up, if there was an advert on the telly with a silly accent, me and my dad would always impersonate it around the house. I think, through doing that, I now have an ear for it."
And Jodie admitted she prefers adopting a different dialect as it helps her to separate herself from her characters – but she wishes there were more Scousers heard on screen.
She said: "Some are harder than others, but it does help me; doing my own accent, I find it harder to separate myself from the character. But you also don’t see a lot of Scousers on the telly, so maybe we need to change that a little bit."
After working on the likes of ‘Killing Eve’, ‘Doctor Foster’ and ‘Thirteen’, Jodie feels "luck" to have been involved in so many female-driven projects.
She said: "I feel extremely lucky. The past four or five roles I’ve played have all been written by women. So I feel as though a lot of the characters I’ve played have been complex and challenging.
"As an actor and a human being, you want to be challenged and push yourself into new depths that you may not have known before."
Jodie Comer’s language lies for Killing Eve
