Jodie Comer: Women suppress rage

Telegraph

09-06-2025

The actress Jodie Comer has said that women 'suppress' rage and have trouble expressing the emotion.
Comer, 32, discussed her experience with portraying anger on stage, and said that she was 'not quite sure where to pull it from'.
Speaking to British GQ about performing in Suzie Miller's one-woman play, Prima Facie, she said: 'I've always felt as if rage is something that I struggle to conjure up.
'I've realised my own [rage] just immediately goes to a very emotional place – my anger can so quickly go to tears.'
She added: 'I think, as women, we suppress it and that's probably why I have trouble accessing it – I've done that so much that it feels kind of foreign, like I'm not quite sure where to pull it from.'
The play, which ran in London's West End in 2022, follows the story of a barrister named Tessa who specialises in defending men accused of sexual assault, and whose view of the legal system changes after she is sexually assaulted herself.
Comer, who will be touring the UK and Ireland with it next year, said it forced men to 'look back at their own behaviour' but that she hadn't had 'meaningful conversation' with many men about it as a result.
She said: 'I imagine it's quite … confronting. I don't know,
'Maybe also, when they read what it's about, they think, 'Well, that's not something that's directed at me'.
'I imagine, for a man, it will force them to look back at their own behaviour, which I imagine would be – or could be – potentially very uncomfortable. But it shouldn't just be…[Sexual assault] isn't 'a woman's issue'. You know what I mean?'
Although she added that there was a male police officer who said the show helped him realise the work that law enforcement can do in such cases.
Comer said: 'I don't think I've had a deep, meaningful conversation with many men about the play, actually.
'I do know there was a male police officer that came in one night, and he wrote in to the production.
'He was kind of saying, 'this is me - I see myself, and I recognise the kind of work that needs to be done as a police officer'.'
The actor, who is best known for playing Villanelle in BBC spy series Killing Eve, said many women had contacted the production after seeing it to share their personal stories.
She explained: 'It's so beautiful, and it's so rare, for someone to look you in the eyes and share something of themselves, and there's so much that isn't said, but even in just the briefest of moments, it's like, 'that was me, or, I feel that'.'
She has previously won both a Tony Award and an Olivier Award for her performance in Prima Facie on the West End and on Broadway.
Elsewhere, she stars in the post-apocalyptic horror sequel 28 Years Later, which is released on June 20.