Jodie Comer prioritises feeling ‘strong’ following teenage ‘obsession with being thin’

'Your body is your instrument'

Jodie Comer has revealed she once struggled with an “unhealthy obsession with being thin” as a teenager.

The actor, who stars in the Bafta award-winning series Killing Eve, has opened up about her body confidence issues growing up, revealing she previously struggled with her weight.

“In my late teens, I was so insecure about my body,” she told Glamour magazine.

“I had a really unhealthy obsession with being thin. It’s something I struggle to speak about because I can’t really remember it. You know when you have a moment in life where it’s a total blur?”

The Liverpudlian star has risen to prominence on international television in recent years following roles in My Mad Fat Diary, Thirteen, and Doctor Foster.

However, Comer – who won the “Best Leading Actress” Bafta award last month for her role as Villanelle in Killing Eve – said that when she reflects on her teenage years she realises how much she prioritised her looks over her passion for acting.

Jodie Comer attends the 24th annual Critics' Choice Awards at Barker Hangar on January 13, 2019 in Santa Monica, California. (Getty Images)

“I don’t remember wanting to go to auditions or being passionate about doing it,” she added. “It’s so hard when you’re a teen.”

The actor continued, saying that her friends would often use social networking website Piczo to view the images of two women and pick “which girl was the fittest".

“Isn’t that disgusting? It blows my mind,” she said.

Having appeared on the cover of countless women’s magazines including ELLE UK and Stylist in recent months, Comer said that she has learned to embrace her looks and finally found self-confidence.

“I’m extremely lucky that isn’t a thing for me anymore,” she said.

“Now I want to feel strong and healthy. To do what I do you need to have stamina and you have so much time in your own head that you really have to. It’s like how people play instruments. Your body is your instrument.”

Elsewhere in the interview, the actor said that she has learned the importance of freedom when it comes to womanhood as a direct result of working on Killing Eve.

“It’s hard because I know Villanelle is a bad person but there’s also something so free in her as she does what she wants to do and stands by it," she told the publication.

"Take away the killing people, just doing something and standing by it and not apologising for anything, that’s what I’ve learnt through these women."

Last month, Comer revealed she was initially hesitant about playing a female assassin in the hit show.

Speaking to GQ, the actor said that she used to hate the words “female assassin”.

“I was like, ‘Oh, f**k no’,” she said. “Because I always think of someone in a leather catsuit and six-inch heels scaling walls.” She wondered: “How naked is she going to be?”

“I should have known better, knowing Phoebe was the writer,” Comer said, referencing the show’s writer Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

Ahead of Killing Eve Season 2, which returns to BBC iPlayer on Saturday 8 June, several Twitter users have accused the series of queerbaiting viewers after Oh dismissed the chance of an on-screen romance between the leading protagonists.

See the full feature in the June Digital Issue of GLAMOUR UK, available online now here.