Jodie Comer delivered the deadpan lines with an arched eyebrow and a curled lip – and the creators of Killing Eve knew they had their assassin.
It was her audition to play unhinged Villanelle – and she nailed it. Luke Jennings, who wrote the books the series is based on, says: “Jodie was exactly it. She jumped out of the screen.”
Jodie read the lines from a scene where Villanelle is at a psychiatric evaluation – in an extravagant pink ballerina dress.
With Luke was Fleabag star Phoebe Waller-Bridge, screenwriter on the first series of Eve.
Luke says: “This was a chance to see her speaking Phoebe’s lines.
"She was perfect immediately. What you see on the screen is what she had pretty much straight out of the box.
“It was not directed, she had the accent, the slightly swivel-eyed quality. She is brilliant. We just knew. It was instant.”
Luke, 67, worked with Jodie, 27, and Sandra Oh, 48, who plays intelligence agent Eve. He says of the pair: “Both are very funny, both work in very different ways. Jodie falls back on instinct, whereas Sandra works like a demon. Every phrase is gone through, practised, worked on.”
Dancer Luke was approached by the BBC after self-publishing the Villanelle books online. The show’s third series is currently on TV.
He says of writer Phoebe, 34: “She is great. Within minutes we knew we were on exactly the same page about Villanelle.
"There is so much that didn’t have to be discussed or thrashed out. It was a joyful, easy process.”
Luke is speaking at the BBC’s Big Book Weekend, a three-day virtual festival starting on Friday. He’ll discuss Killing Eve, the newly released final book.
