Jodie Comer, the actress at the heart of the duel between Matt Damon and Adam Driver

At 28, she is the heroine of the film The Last Duel, by Ridley Scott, released in theaters October 13. Since then, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck have continued to sing his praises. Portrait of the rising star of Hollywood.

For Matt Damon, she embodies the “talent of a generation”. Ben Affleck is pleased, for his part, to appear in the “notes” at the bottom of his Wikipedia file. In The Last Duel, in theaters since October 13, Jodie Comer plays Marguerite de Carrouges, the wife of a knight, raped by the latter’s best friend. The young woman then decides to denounce her attacker. The case will be resolved after a fight to the death between her husband Jean de Carrouges (Matt Damon) and the squire Jacques Le Gris (Adam Driver). However, if the first loses this game, Marguerite de Carrouges will be burned alive for “false accusation”. The feature film by Ridley Scott is an adaptation of a book by Eric Jager, himself inspired by a true story dating from the 14th century.

In video, “The Last Duel”, the trailer

Find your voice

The testimonies of the time were not moreover to the taste of Jodie Comer. “What really struck me was that at this time, men were glorified, she explained in the columns of Variety. Many texts spoke of them. Conversely, little has been written about this woman, who was nevertheless at the heart of this duel (…) ”. A story that could be transposed to a more contemporary era. “Not a decade goes by without a woman being humiliated because she dares to express herself», Lamented Jodie Comer in the columns of SHE US. Because the actress proclaims it loud and clear: she has a real admiration for her character. “Marguerite wanted to fight for justice,” she said to Variety, Sunday October 17. It was in his nature. It is all the more remarkable that his life was at stake. ”

Despite the seven centuries that separate them, Jodie Comer and her character have in common their outspokenness, as well as the desire to remain faithful to their values. This self-confidence, the actress first cultivated on the set of Killing Eve. Jodie Comer is 25 years old when she lands the role of Villanelle, a psychopathic killer tracked down by MI5 agent Eva Polastri (played by Sandra Oh), in 2018. “I have grown so much thanks to this role, confided the actress at SHE US, October 18. Now I feel ready and better armed. I have the feeling that my ideas are not totally null. It gave me confidence in myself. ” Her performance in the show signed Phoebe Waller-Bridge will also earn her a Bafta and an Emmy Award, in 2019, and being nominated for the Golden Globes.

“Billy Elliot” and Keira Knightley

Born on March 11, 1993 in Liverpool, she saw her first cinematographic emotions in front of Billy Elliot (1999), by Stephen Daldry, who made him shed a torrent of tears. But the real revelation comes the year she turns 12. The teenager then reads a monologue about the Hillsborough disaster – a stampede that killed 97 people in a stadium in 1989 – at the Liverpool Theater Festival. His performance was acclaimed, then awarded a trophy.

At 17, Jodie Comer is already being suggested to find an agent. “Obsessed” by Keira Knightley, the teenager indicates to one of these potential managers that she wants to “play in period films”. Yet it is on the small screen, in detective series like London Judicial Police and The Investigations of Vera, that she will take her first steps. In 2012, she signed a contract with Jane Epstein, influential celebrity agent. Before you find success in Diary of an extraordinary teenager, in 2013. Her fate changed in April 2018 when, after having just returned from a drunken music festival in Barcelona, ​​she received a call to audition. She agrees to appear for the casting, and in five minutes lands the role of Villanelle in Killing Eve.

To listen: the editorial podcast

The emperor’s wife

The fashion world is not exempt from this craze for Jodie Comer. In September 2019, the actress became ambassador for the Loewe brand. In March 2020, she appeared on the cover of Vogue Spain, which ranks her among the 30 most influential European personalities under 30 of the year.

On the cinema side, the rising star of Hollywood is revealed at the beginnings of a meteoric rise. After having officiated in Free Guy alongside Ryan Reynolds – it was during the filming in Boston that she met her companion James Burke, who works in the field of new technologies -, she will soon be showing Kitbag, a biopic on Napoleon Bonaparte (Joaquin Phoenix), in which she plays Josephine, the emperor’s wife. She will also officiate in the play Prima facie, between April and June 2022. And will bow out in the fourth and final season of Killing Eve, whose filming is in progress. His next challenge? “I would love to participate in a project for which I must completely transform myself,” she declared in the columns of Harper’s Bazaar. Or something very physical, which I should train for. ”