Perhaps best known as fashion-plate femme fatale Villanelle on the acclaimed television series Killing Eve, Jodie Comer has also emerged as one the most versatile actresses working today, playing leading roles on television, stage and screen. In The Bikeriders, the British actress transforms herself once again, playing Kathy, a conventional Midwestern girl who falls for an enigmatic young motorcyclist, and serves as the narrator of the film.
“I was so excited to have the opportunity to work with Jeff Nichols,” Comer says. “He is someone I’ve admired for a very long time. And then finding out that the script is based on a book of photographs taken in the 1960s was unique and extremely enticing.”
The photos are unexpectedly beautiful images of a down-and-dirty lifestyle that existed on the edges of polite society, according to Comer. “I only saw two or three photographs of my character, Kathy. She’s not aware she is being photographed, but there was so much I could draw from those pictures.”
The actress also listened to about a half hour of audio interviews that made it clear to her that Kathy is an exuberant woman who says exactly what she thinks. “I completely fell in love with her,” says Comer. “I love that she narrates the film and the stories are told from her perspective. Danny told me she felt things quite deeply, she was very articulate and very smart. I don’t know if she saw herself that way, but she seems very good at saying exactly what she feels.”
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When Kathy first encounters the motorcycle gang through a friend, she is disgusted and terrified by them — until she meets Benny. “They have an instant connection that is heightened by the element of the unknown,” according to Comer. “She wants a stable life with him, and that is something he doesn’t have to give her. It’s dangerous and extremely intoxicating. She’s suddenly surrounded by drug use, alcohol, violence. All things you can easily get lost in. It has to change her, even though she seems to know herself quite well.”
Kathy witnesses all of this and tries to tell what happened without overthinking, says Comer. “I think if the guys were telling this story, it would be very different. Maybe a little bit cooler, definitely glorified. But because she was always on the periphery, she makes for a more reliable narrator.”
Comer, who grew up in Liverpool, says one of the most challenging aspects of the role was learning Kathy’s Midwestern accent. She worked on it with dialect coach Victoria Hanlin for two-and-a-half months before shooting began. “Kathy’s relationship with Benny is central to the story, but in a lot of their scenes together they just look at each other without much dialogue,” says the actress. “You almost never see them in their private moments. I felt like the way to get the essence of her was through her voice. I wanted to make sure I did everything I could to get the voice right.”
Much of the film’s extensive narration was adapted from the real Kathy’s taped interviews, according to Nichols. “Kathy has a unique cadence in the way she speaks,” he says. “She’s funny and self-deprecating and has a very strong working-class Chicago accent. Jodie captured that exactly, as well as the way Kathy pauses and the way her voice pitches up when she is being sarcastic. I’ve played the interviews for audiences at festival screenings and they are dumbfounded by how accurate her dialect is. It’s uncanny.”
Although Comer’s delivery seems effortless, notes the director, behind the scenes it was far from it. “I saw her ‘homework’ on set one day. She had taken Kathy’s taped interviews and broken down every line phonetically. It is an impressive level of work, but it’s even more impressive that it completely disappears on camera.”
The Bikeriders is in cinemas nationwide on 21 June. Book tickets online now.