Jodie Comer on acting with babies: ‘They have a break every 20 minutes’
ITV News Entertainment Reporter Rishi Davda sits down with Jodie Comer to discuss her new film, The End We Start From, where she plays a new mother in an apocalyptic world
She’s a rare breed of actor, one who seemingly can do no wrong.
From one project to the next, Jodie Comer’s talent only seems to grow as the world takes watch.
The Liverpudlian is undoubtedly one of the country’s finest performers and her latest film ‘The End We Start From’ is demonstrative of just why her stock is so high within the industry.
She plays a new mum, whose son is born into an apocalyptic world. Climate change has come to a devastating head and Jodie’s character "mother" is forced to abandon her home in search of safety.
While the film isn’t ostensibly about raising awareness of ecological and environmental issues, Jodie believes it could get people talking.
"They are in the midst of a climate crisis, but I think in the telling of the story so much of that is symbolic of her experience.
"It’s quite a nuanced telling. I think all art has that ability, change happens even if it’s just a conversation between friends."
Whether it’s the charismatic physcopath she played in Killing Eve, or her multiple award-winning stint as a defence barrister on stage in Prima Face, Jodie seeks out work that forces her to dig deep.
I ask her why she leans towards raw and tangible projects and her response is simply, "they excite me and provoke emotion," she says.
"It’s what I’m drawn to and I think you learn something different on every job, which always kind of stays with you."
The End We Start From is an outlier in the "disaster movie" sphere, in that there aren’t many scenes of widespread chaos or drawn-out fight sequences.
Rather it favours a focus on individual experience and emotion from within to help deliver the story.
Director Mahalia Belo, who gave birth during lockdown, wanted the film to be as much about the mother and her baby, as it was about the world crumbling around them.
"I like it when films speak about the internal in an external way. You kind of manage to get scale and scope through that," she says.
"It was important to feel rooted around a women’s journey. It’s about the future and what we are raising them (our children) into."
Having seen the movie, I can tell you that there is rarely a moment where Jodie is without a baby in her arms.
Real babies were used for the majority of filming and that often posed a charming challenge for the cast.
Jodie remembers the one big rule that "they have to have a break every 20 minutes".
They’d be "taken away after 20 minutes and another baby would be brought in. Motherhood is explored in a very unique way and working with babies so extensively really created beautiful, honest and spontaneous moments."
The End We Start From is in cinemas on January 19.
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