Jodie Comer stars in Suzie Miller’s play Prima Facie
(Picture: Helen Murray)Prima Facie playwright Suzie Miller was so convinced by Jodie Comer’s portrayal of Killing Eve assassin Villanelle that she initially thought the actress was Russian.
Comer became a star playing the psychopathic killer in the hit BBC show and has now made her West End debut in Miller’s legal drama.
The lawyer-turned-playwright, below with director Justin Martin, was involved in casting the 29-year-old to play the part of the barrister who finds herself on the other side of the legal process after she is raped.
She said: “We had a few names but I didn’t quite know who Jodie Comer was at first. I knew Villanelle but I thought Villanelle was a Russian actor, I didn’t realise she was British.
“The first time I had a conversation with her I was in lockdown in Australia and we were on the phone together and she had a Scouse accent and I was like, ‘Is this actually the person that I see on the screen in Killing Eve?’”
Miller, who worked as a lawyer for 15 years before becoming a writer, said she had “a real meeting of minds” with the actress.
She said: “I think Jodie is an absolute sensation. She is born for the theatre. I just look at her and think how have you been on screen all these years and we haven’t had you on our stages.”
The pair also discussed the issues in the play with lawyers and a judge, and were given a tour of the Old Bailey and a look “behind the scenes” at how it works.
Miller said she started writing after working with young homeless people in Sydney’s red-light district and seeing how shocked her friends were by what she told them about her work.
She said the theatre could “humanise statistics”, adding: “I realised it’s really hard for people to hear that all the time but if I create a story about those people and they lean into that story then people want to empathise.”
