Killing Eve star Jodie Comer has said she doubted whether the show would be successful in the UK.
The series was produced by BBC America and later made available to the UK audience online via the iPlayer.
However Comer, who stars as cold-blooded assassin Villanelle, said she had thought that, despite its success in the US, the show would flop in her home country.
The eight-part series, which was co-written and executive produced by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, in fact received overwhelmingly positive reviews and was nominated for a Golden Globe for best drama television series.
She told The Big Issue magazine: “It was so crazy, and wonderful. It is lovely there is such a buzz. I have never been part of a show that has had such an enormous response.
“Even after it was a hit in America, the pessimist in me was saying, what if the Brits hate it? But they didn’t. They loved it. Even in my family, I can tell they genuinely love it and it’s not ‘We’ll have to watch this because our Jodie’s in it’. My dad has watched it so many times.”
The series stars Comer, 25, alongside Grey’s Anatomy actress Sandra Oh in a cat-and-mouse tale of international spies.
Comer said the second series, which is in the final stages of being filmed, will have a “different energy”.
She said: “The show on the whole does have a different energy, which I think is important. But it has the same humour and dark moments.
“What I like about Villanelle is she makes people question their own morals. You relate to her in ways you wouldn’t admit to. We all have these dark corners of our minds. Phoebe just brought them forward into the light and we have to face it.
“And maybe this is just because I am a woman, but another thing that is exciting about Villanelle is that she doesn’t use her sexuality. She is never in six-inch heels and a tight catsuit luring men in through her sexuality.”
Read the full interview in The Big Issue, available from December 17 for £3.
