Does Villanelle Eat More Than The Average TV Character? Not According to Jodie Comer
Killing Eve tells the story of two women who become pretty obsessed with each other. There’s also the fact that one of them is a nearly-psychopathic assassin and the other is a former MI6 agent. Add in Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer, and it’s an addicting series. One interesting aspect that Jodie Comer pointed out is that she eats a fair amount as Villanelle on camera. And while it’s not more than your average human, it is different than what viewers typically see on TV.
Villanelle eats on-screen a lot, fixing a ‘pet peeve’ of Jodie Comer’s
When fans meet Villanelle, she’s in an ice cream parlor. Then, from there, Villanelle is seen eating shepherd’s pie, more ice cream, cake icing, iced coffee, and much more. Now, by Season 3, it’s completely normal to see Villanelle chowing down on-screen. But Comer does prefer a kill scene over a scene where she’s eating.
“I love eating, don’t get me wrong… I love eating,” Comer said on the Happy Sad Confused with Josh Horowitz in April of 2019. However, when filming from 9 in the morning until 6 p.m. or later, it’s not as much fun. However, Villanelle’s eating habits fix a pet peeve Comer has.
“What I also enjoy about [eating] on-screen is that my biggest pet peeve, you know when you’re watching a show or a film and there’s an actress flicking a pea around the plate,” Comer said. “And then I get so drawn into the fact that they’re avoiding eating the food that I can’t concentrate on the scene.”
It seems like Villanelle eats more than other characters on TV, but she’s just eating normally
Comer is aware that Villanelle’s eating is a bit noticeable for a television character.
“Food is something we enjoy in life and I feel that, when Killing Eve came out, everyone was like, ‘She’s eating so much,’” Comer said. “And it’s like, mmm she’s probably just eating like a normal person would. But we don’t really enjoy it or see it on camera.”
And while it’s more natural, it does make filming them tough.
“But there’s something also very, kind of, just natural. I mean, it’s hard. We had a scene in Series 2 with pasta,” Comer said, talking about a day in particular in Season 2 that will live on as the day Comer almost died from pasta. She said it was “really, really grim,” having to eat all day. And, of course, she nearly choked to death.
Comer had a close call with some pasta in Season 2
Comer told Entertainment Weekly this story, too. And now that Season 2 has come and gone, it’s easy to know which scene Comer was talking about. While Villanelle is on assignment for MI6 to get closer to Aaron Peel, she poses as Billie, a fallen New York socialite. Aaron Peel takes Billie out to lunch, invites her to Italy with him, and then forces her to eat pasta.
Comer described Villanelle eating the pasta “in a very grotesque way” because she’s “trying to prove a point about something.” Typical Villanelle is putting on a show as Billie and her pasta.
“She’s playing it up, being her usual childish self, and the pasta was extremely dry. And it was extremely thick. I was shoveling it in, and then it just shot down my throat and then I was full-on choking,” Comer recalled. “They must have it on camera — a medic came in and managed to get it out, but my life definitely flashed before me…. I just remember being opposite the other actor and looking at him, and he thought I was making a weird acting choice. So yeah, it’s ruined pasta for me completely.”
Comer probably can’t look at carbonara the same way again, but at least Comer’s brother got a kick out of her near-tragedy.
“[H]e was like, ‘I love this. Of all the things that could have killed Villanelle, it was a mouthful of pasta,’” Comer said. “It was my most dangerous Villanelle moment.”
