Today (Monday 8th January), acclaimed actor Jodie Comer has given an exclusive interview to The Big Issue to mark her upcoming starring role as “Woman” in new independent British film, The End We Start From.
Comer said: “Ultimately, it’s a story about motherhood set within the midst of a climate crisis. I felt the exploration of that environmental crisis was unique. We were exploring on a very human level, which really moved me – more than a lot of films we’ve seen that depict these kinds of happenings.
She continued: “Not being a mother myself, I really want women to watch this and see themselves depicted in a truthful light. The relationship women have with their bodies after they have a baby and how they feel transformed and there’s a part of their selves that is lost – we really explore that. And she’s going through all this in the midst of an environmental catastrophe.”
Comer received the script just as she was beginning her run in Prima Facie on Broadway: “That role stuck with me. It only fully left me about a month ago. I finally shattered her. I was able to come back – I’ve been away for so long, after the second run of the play I just had this real desire to come home. Your actual personal life is non-existent.
On the issues the play raises, she said: “It feels very personal to me. I would like to see a change in the attitudes towards women reporting sexual assault cases and a change in the system of how that’s dealt with in the courts and the prejudices people can have when a woman is standing up, giving evidence. I’ve explored sexual assault in a couple of my projects now and every year it’s like, ‘Oh, this is so timely,’ you know? It would be so nice to get to a point where it’s not. I find that infuriating. I’m kind of over that being an excuse for a lot of things.”
Comer concluded: “I’ve got a couple of books I’ve acquired the rights to, things in the very early stages of development. Being witness to how this film was made – and developing my own taste, being comfortable with putting my hand up and saying, ‘Guys, this is what I’m thinking, you know, this is my instinct’ – it makes the experience so much richer. Especially independent film, when there’s so little money or time and sometimes so many opinions. It feels like your baby because you’ve been in the trenches with it. So learning to take up space in that way, especially as a woman, I feel is so important.”
