Kenneth Branagh just paid Jodie Comer the highest compliment in Hollywood: He compared her to Meryl Streep.
In a new interview, the award-winning filmmaker discussed directing Comer in his upcoming movie, The Last Disturbance of Madeline Hynde, heaping on the praise for his 32-year-old leading lady.
“I consider myself fortunate to have worked with her at this stage in her career,” Branagh said while speaking to U.K. outlet The Times.
He added, “As somebody once said of the young Streep, ‘I wish I had shares in her future.'”
The Killing Eve actress stayed humble when the director’s Streep comparison came up in a separate interview for the same story, replying, “He is very kind… Bless him.”
A psychological thriller due out in theaters next year, The Last Disturbance of Madeline Hynde also stars Patricia Arquette, Michael Sheen, Tom Bateman, and Vicky McClure. Branagh stayed coy about the film’s plot in the Times interview, teasing only vague poetic details about Comer’s character — “dark night of the soul … reckless emotional exposure, volatility.”
Comer rose to fame playing assassin Villanelle in the hit BBC America series Killing Eve. The role earned her critical acclaim, scoring her a 2019 Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series and two BAFTA TV awards.
The British actress also earned an Olivier Award and a Tony Award for Best Actress for her performance as a lawyer defending men from sexual assault until she becomes a victim herself in the stage play Prima Facie. She latter held her own in Ridley Scott‘s 2021 drama, The Last Duel, in which she starred opposite Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, and in The Bikeriders, Jeff Nichols‘ 1960s-set drama about the rise and fall of a Midwestern motorcycle gang that also featured Tom Hardy and Austin Butler.
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Comer is currently gracing the big screen in Danny Boyle‘s zombie thriller 28 Years Later, a sequel to the 2002 flick 28 Days Later.
Responding to another Branagh comment about how she was “hungry for hard work,” Comer told The Times, “Probably. I like a bit of hard work. It’s a space I like to be in, that I don’t feel I fully understand it, or I ever really will.”
Speaking on how she maintains boundaries between her work and her personal life, Comer noted, “There does seem to be a real fashion to see how much you can torture yourself. And you can see it a lot when it comes to campaign season [for awards]. It becomes, ‘How far has everyone gone? How much has everyone given?’ And that’s not something I can connect with personally.”
Streep is a Hollywood legend with three Academy Awards, three Emmys, two Screen Actors Guild awards, a Presidential Medal of Freedom, seven Grammy nominations, and an American Film Institute Life Achievement Award. She recently appeared on Only Murders in the Building seasons 3 and 4 as Loretta Durkin, an actress who marries main character Oliver Putnam (Martin Short) in the season 4 finale.
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