Jodie Comer reveals she was 'terrified' at the thought of working with 15 babies for her latest film The End We Start From

Jodie Comer revealed she was ‘literally terrified’ at the thought of working with 15 babies for her upcoming indie film.

The Killing Eve actress stars alongside Benedict Cumberbatch in British climate change survival film The End We Start From – which arrives in cinemas on Friday.

Jodie, 30, plays a mother simply called Woman, who is trying to navigate chaos brought about by flooding – and doing so with a newborn baby.

Woman is seen with the baby in almost every scene so due to strict on-set rules regarding children, Jodie had to work with 15 different infants ranging from eight weeks old to young toddlers.

‘I started this process quite literally terrified,’ she told the BBC. ‘My hands were visibly shaking when I met an eight-week-old on set. I was like, “Oh my god, what have I done?”‘

Jodie Comer (seen at The End We Start From premiere on Tuesday) revealed she was ‘literally terrified’ at the thought of working with 15 babies for upcoming indie film

Jodie’s character Woman is seen with a baby, called O, in almost every scene so due to strict on-set rules regarding children, Jodie had to work with 15 different infants ranging from eight weeks old to young toddlers

The Liverpudlian star is no stranger to a challenge, having taken on a multitude of accents as Villanelle in Killing Eve and starred in one-woman play Prima Facie on the West End and Broadway.

And The End We Start From was no exception, said Jodie.

The film begins in London, detailing Woman’s and her partner R’s relationship – as well as showing her giving birth.

Rising waters mean Jodie’s character and R, played by Plebs actor Joel Fry, must flee their flooded home. However after heading to his parents’ house for shelter, lawlessness and further flooding mean they must continue to run.

Strict on-set rules mean infants can only be part of a scene for 20 minutes, so Jodie had to be comfortable acting with multiple babies – despite it being her first experience of close contact with children so young.

‘It was very eye-opening,’ she said. ‘A lot of my younger cousins have grown up now, so I haven’t spent a lot of time around young babies.’

While the acting is usually the main thing stars have to focus on when filming, Jodie said she had the added pressure of making sure the babies were safe and comfortable at all times.

She said: ‘It’s one thing to act and think about everything else, but then actually being conscious of this precious little being and making sure that they’re safe.’

Strict on-set rules mean infants can only be part of a scene for 20 minutes, so Jodie had to be comfortable acting with multiple babies

The film starts in London, where rising waters mean Jodie’s character and her partner R, played by Plebs actor Joel Fry (pictured), must flee their flooded home

The film starts in London, detailing Woman’s and her partner R’s relationship – as well as showing her giving birth

Jodie (seen with Joel Fry in the film) is no stranger to a challenge, having taken on a multitude of accents as Villanelle in Killing Eve and starred in one-woman play Prima Facie on West End and Broadway

Jodie said she felt that during the process, she followed the arc of her character – as both herself and Woman began overwhelmed by motherhood but later settled in.

‘People always say nothing can prepare you for having a child, and that’s very much where Woman started,’ she said.

‘But then you see her come into her own and find her instincts and nature. It felt like that simultaneously happened to me in real time.’

On Sunday afternoon, Jodie gave fans a glimpse behind the camera on the set of the film, while sharing her first ever photo dump with Instagram followers.

She gave followers a behind-the-scenes look as she prepared to play the frantic new mother who is forced to flee her London home and head north after the city is rocked by an ecological catastrophe.

In two images from set, the actress wears a prosthetic baby bump while readying herself for scenes as the film’s unnamed central character.

A third shot finds Jodie unwinding in the bath, her enormous prosthetic baby bump covered by a wet towel.

Jodie Comer shared behind-the-scenes photos from the set of her new film The End We Start From on Sunday afternoon

The actress plays a new mother in the disaster film, and she was seen modelling a prosthetic baby bump in her latest Instagram posts

Jodie also shared passages from American poet laureate Ada Limón’s We Are Surprised – a poem about moving to the countryside after years spent living in the city.

Other images capture Jodie and the production team occupying various outdoor locations across the United Kingdom – among them an empty beach and a remote looking jetty.

Captioning the images, she wrote: ‘First ever “Photo Dump” and it’s a big one. In honour of our film being released this coming Friday 19th.’

Jodie has already won praise for her central role in the forthcoming film, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 10.

The actress stars alongside Benedict, Joel, Mark Strong and Katherine Waterston in the British survival drama, co-produced by Cumberbatch’s own SunnyMarch production house.

In an exclusive interview with The Big Issue magazine she said The End We Start From, which is based on Megan Hunter’s book, is a story about motherhood.

She said: ‘I felt the exploration of that environmental crisis was unique. We were exploring on a very human level, which really moved me, more than a lot of films we’ve seen that depict these kinds of happenings.

A third shot finds Comer unwinding in the bath, her enormous prosthetic baby bump covered by a wet towel

The Liverpudlian star also shared passages from American poet laureate Ada Limón’s We Are Surprised – a poem about moving to the countryside after years spent living in the city

In another shot Comer reveals a full face of makeup as she poses for a rare selfie

‘Not being a mother myself, I really want women to watch this and see themselves depicted in a truthful light.

‘The relationship women have with their bodies after they have a baby, and how they feel transformed, and there’s a part of their selves that is lost, we really explore that. And she’s going through all this in the midst of an environmental catastrophe.’

Jodie received the script as she was beginning her one-woman show Prima Facie on Broadway.

‘That role stuck with me. It only fully left me about a month ago. I finally shattered her,’ she said.

‘I was able to come back – I’ve been away for so long, after the second run of the play I just had this real desire to come home. Your actual personal life is non-existent.’

She added: ‘Being witness to how this film was made, and developing my own taste, being comfortable with putting my hand up and saying, “Guys, this is what I’m thinking, you know, this is my instinct”, it makes the experience so much richer.

‘Especially independent film, when there’s so little money or time and sometimes so many opinions. It feels like your baby because you’ve been in the trenches with it.

‘So learning to take up space in that way, especially as a woman, I feel is so important.’

The End We Start From is released on January 19.  

The actress takes a nap between takes in another image from her first photo dump on Sunday

Other images capture Comer and the production team occupying various outdoor locations across the United Kingdom – among them an empty beach and a remote looking jetty