When playing a sociopathic assassin with a delightfully eccentric taste in fashion, one might expect to perform various, potentially hazardous stunts involving firearms and sharp objects, jumping and falling, and participating in high-speed chases. It’s all in a day’s work for Jodie Comer, who portrays said assassin on BBC America’s Killing Eve. But as Comer tells Entertainment Weekly, her most dangerous stunt involved none of those things. And yet somehow it almost killed her anyway.
Comer, who plays the mischievous assassin Villanelle opposite Sandra Oh’s titular MI6 agent on the acclaimed series, revealed that it was pasta–of all things–that almost did her in. And that is what we in the industry call “relatable content.” The actress explained that she was “eating some pasta in a very grotesque way” for a particular scene, which quickly devolved into a potentially fatal situation:
She’s trying to prove a point about something. 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. 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.
Maybe actors aren’t just like us after all because I cannot imagine a single situation that would turn me off of pasta–not even a near-death experience could keep me away from those heavenly carb tubes.
The second season of Killing Eve premieres April 7, and will be simulcast on BBC America and AMC.