I didnt think that I was right for the part, she says.
I thought I would be wasting everyones time if I even taped for it.
Then I just woke up in bed one night and I was like, Ive made a massive mistake.
Photo: Pip
I called my agent the next morning and I was like, Is it too late to tape?
Long story short, a month and a half later the role was hers.
When Mod talks aboutOne Day, her reverence for the source material is still apparent.
Leo Woodall and Mod inOne Day.
Over Zoom, Mod, dressed in a red sweater, gesticulates all over the place.
Its all a bit mad, she says, laughing, of the role.
(A previous film adaptation, from 2011, cast Anne Hathaway in the same part.)
Photo: Ludovic Robert/Netflix
We just sort of let that unfold naturally, Mod says.
There was a lot of creative flow, a really easy back and forth.
Leo Woodall and Mod inOne Day.
Photo: Matthew Towers/Netflix
The presence of intimacy coordinators, Katharine Hardman and Elle McAlpine, was another aid.
(McAlpine also worked on Yorgos LanthimossPoor Things.)
She can hardly wait for the Dexter and Emma stans to hit the internet.
Mod and Ben Whishaw inThis Is Going to Hurt.
She is the character that everyone who reads the book relates to, Mod says.
Theres something very British about her sense of humor and about her temperament.
That was something that I was really eager to make obvious in this adaptation.
In many ways, I hope I bring my own flavor to Emma as well.
Mod feels that she internalized that kind of bias growing up.
There was so much of me that didnt see myself playing this role.
She hopes, however, that that narrative is changing.
So, it was crucial that Emma could hold her own intellectually.
Thats really important to show in their dynamic, Mod says.
So, too, is Emmas sense of humornot least because Mod is such a skilled comedian.
At St. Marys College, Durham, Mod stumbled into doing stand-up and ended up loving it.
I believe that when you are number one on the call sheet youve got a responsibility, she says.
Mod and Ben Whishaw inThis Is Going to Hurt.
Hair, Carlos Ferras; makeup, Anna Inglis Hall; stylist, Farrah OConnor.
