COMER CHAMELEON

Jodie Comer’s laptop is lying to her. The actor squints disbelievingly at the screen, bringing her face – tousled, honey-golden hair tucked behind her ears, sparkling studs winking out – right up to the camera. “My laptop says it’s 6.07am, but that’s a big fat lie,” she frowns. “It’s definitely not that early.” It is, in fact, a leisurely nine in the morning in New York, where Comer is doing press for Free Guy , the high-octane adventure movie that pairs her with Ryan Reynolds and Taika Waititi and is, somewhat astonishingly, also only her very first film role.

Let that settle in for a moment. Comer’s presence looms so large over popular culture, courtesy of her diabolical – and indelible – performance as Villanelle in , that you might be forgiven for thinking that she is one of those hybrid television and movie stars who effortlessly keeps. Comer’s petulant, chaotic, Molly Goddard gown-wearing psycho killer is one of the great television characters of the past decade. Now she’s preparing to say goodbye to Villanelle when the fourth and final season of wraps in London later this year. Comer is “terrified, honestly”, she admits. “[It’s] bittersweet, but it’s also really exciting. I feel like the writers are enjoying the fact that they can take some risks.” Still, she senses the pressure that all beloved television series experience to stick the landing; it’s the finale curse, and nobody wants to be the next . “It’s always the way, isn’t it?” Comer reflects. “We’ve been so lucky to be a part of something that was successful but also impacted and was so personal to people, and then it has to go. But I really hope we can give the fans an exciting way out.”