Jodie Comer on Her Tony Nomination: It ‘Has to Imply Extra Than Simply Me’
That Jodie Comer ought to have acquired a nomination for her work within the solo present “Prima Facie,” a task that already received her Olivier and Evening Standard Theater awards, ought to have come as a shock to nobody. Except apparently Comer.
“I’m in shock,” she stated from the again of a taxi late Tuesday morning.
In “Prima Facie,” which additionally earned nominations in three design classes, Comer performs Tessa, an bold younger barrister who finds herself reworked after a colleague rapes her. With compassion, daring physicality and uncooked, febrile emotion, Comer enacts that assault and its aftermath eight occasions per week, standing within the stage rain (which the backstage crew has often, although not all the time, warmed up) as Tessa struggles to achieve a brand new perspective on her life and the legislation.
Comer stated she hopes that the play continues to generate discussions round sexual assault and hopes that her nomination is in service of the various girls she endeavors to signify. These are edited excerpts from the dialog.
How do you are feeling?
We’ve been on such a journey with this play. I by no means dreamed that this may be some extent that we might be at. So it simply feels unbelievable. The response has been stunning, and I simply really feel very, very grateful that so many on the staff have been acknowledged as effectively. I can’t stress sufficient how a lot of a staff effort this piece actually is.
On the evening I noticed the play, because it ended, I might hear a number of girls weeping. Has the response right here been any completely different than it was in London?
The solely distinction, I might say, has been to the humor. People discover humor in numerous moments. But given the subject material, which is so common, the response has been very, similar to the U.Okay. We’ve had lots of people sending letters to us backstage, explaining their experiences watching the play and the way it affected them. And we’ve had individuals attain out who got here to see the play in London, and have additionally come to Broadway, expressing and confiding how their lives have modified throughout the previous 12 months. It seems like we are able to have the identical dialog right here.
The nomination is clearly a testomony to a really astonishing Broadway debut. But given what the play considerations, do you are feeling that the nomination honors one thing extra?
I hope so. It has to. I’ve so many individuals to be glad about and so many individuals that I’m representing. This nomination has to imply extra than simply me.
What’s the pleasure of taking part in Tessa, even understanding that this horrible factor occurs to her?
What I like about performing this play each evening is the journey that she goes on. The evolution of this lady, even by this actually tough time, her sense of self and power and resilience, I actually do love. She comes out of this expertise positively modified not directly, however under no circumstances defeated. Tessa nonetheless evokes hope. We get lots of messages like that, like, “I felt fully crushed, but additionally invigorated.”