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Villanelle, birth name Oxana Vorontsova or Oksana Astankova is a fictional character in Luke Jennings' novel Codename Villanelle (2018), its sequels Killing Eve: No Tomorrow (2019) and Killing Eve: Die For Me (2020), and the BBC America television series adaptation Killing Eve (2018–2022) in which she is portrayed by English actress Jodie Comer. She is a psychopathic assassin who works for a crime syndicate called The Twelve, and the archenemy of British intelligence agent Eve Polastri. Their mutually obsessive relationship is the main focus of both the novels and the TV series. The character and Comer's performance have received universal critical acclaim, with Villanelle widely being considered the show's breakout character and one of the most popular and acclaimed characters on television. Background Villanelle is the title character in Luke Jennings' four-segment novella series (2014–2016), whose compilation forms his 2018 novel Codename Villanelle. The 2018—2022 television series Killing Eve, created by British writer-actor Phoebe Waller-Bridge, is based on Jennings' novellas. Jennings stated that he based Villanelle's character on Idoia López Riaño, a hitwoman for Basque separatist group ETA who was convicted of murdering 23 people in the 1990s. Jennings described Riaño—nicknamed La Tigresa (The Tigress) for her "legendary sexual prowess"—as a "psychopath" and "completely without empathy." To further develop the Villanelle character for television, Waller-Bridge applied her impressions from her interview of Angela Simpson, an Arizona woman who had imprisoned, tortured and murdered a victim, and who—though affectless during the interview—afterward erupted with exuberant, giddy pride at her own performance. Waller-Bridge, Comer, and director Harry Bradbeer drew inspiration from a 2016 Spike Jonze perfume-commercial dancer (played by Margaret Qualley) who was overtaken by an alien force that liberated her from societal expectations, and who became playful and enthusiastic—and unpredictable. Bradbeer also applied his appreciation of the Coen brothers' characteristic blend of comedy and terror, crafting characters who are most chilling when behaving almost normally and who are most dangerous when acting happy, innocent, playful and naughty. Name Some commentators conjecture the name Villanelle was derived from the word villainess. In The New Yorker, Jia Tolentino likened the entire Killing Eve series to the villanelle poetic form, writing that the show is about the "iteration of a recognizable pattern, its pleasures emerging in the internal twists". In the novel, assassin Oxana Vorontsova chose her cover name as Villanelle, after a favourite perfume of the Comtesse du Barry who was guillotined in 1793 ("I shall have to be careful, then," said Oxana). In the television series, she taunts British intelligence agent Eve Polastri by sending her a bottle of perfume called La Villanelle. Separately, a perfume named Villanelle had been produced in Belgium in the month preceding Killing Eve's television debut, the perfume's maker saying the name was inspired by Keith Douglas' 1940 poem "Villanelle of Spring Bells". The perfume maker noted an influx of orders from the U.S. after the show's American debut. In Killing Eve Villanelle is a brutal hired assassin who soon becomes involved in a cat-and-mouse game with MI5 intelligence operative Eve Polastri (Sandra Oh), the two women becoming mutually obsessed and sharing what has been called a "crackling chemistry... between bitter enemies and would-be lovers". Agent Polastri tracks the "utterly unforgivable" assassin Villanelle across Europe, not as hero and villain but as "two broken women whose flaws bind them together in a twisted pas de deux." As the series progresses, Villanelle's backstory is revealed: she is an orphan with a violent reputation, who once developed an obsession for a nurturing older language teacher named Anna (Susan Lynch), with whom she had an affair. The affair ended in Anna's suicide after a jealous Villanelle castrated Anna's husband to eliminate her love rival. Five years after going to prison for the murder, Villanelle is recruited as an assassin by a criminal organisation called The Twelve, that helps her escape, fake her own death, and emerge with a new identity. She works with her handler, Konstantin Vasiliev (Kim Bodnia), with whom she has a kind of father-daughter relationship punctuated by occasional violence. Characterisation Villanelle has been described as "a manic pixie dream assassin who's as charming as she is psychopathic", a "chillingly relatable monster" who takes "fulsome pleasure in a murder well performed". Not simply a hired assassin, Villanelle was described as "taking joy in the pain of others" and having "no moral fetters holding her back", having been "raised to kill without guilt or concern, ... love or loyalty". An innocent exterior hides cold brutality, and Villanelle—a "living, breathing, shopping psychopath"—"kills with flair". She is "exceptionally gifted, completely soulless, and odd-duck hilarious ... rude, funny, awful, naughty. She's twisted and conscienceless, but she is also irrepressible. She's a proper psychopath." Playing cat-and-mouse games on an intellectual and psychological level, Villanelle is "hyperaware of ... the narrative" surrounding her but then defies it, first leading interactions to make them appear predictable but then upending them. Despite having deep psychological damage from her past, the "playful" Villanelle not only has a "wicked sense of humor" but, being "just plain bored", craves stimulation and challenge, causing her to take risks while expressing her playfulness in "creative and showy murder". Though Villanelle's competence is "frightening" and "exaggerated", Jia Tolentino wrote in The New Yorker that she is "essentially a child, petulant and silly and rude", but whose "theatrical instincts flare back to life" in a deadly situation. Tolentino also inferred that Villanelle may be "unravelling" or replaying childhood events: demanding her handler admit he loves her more than his daughter; having lost her mother early and now looking for an older woman for mutual care and devotion; seeking praise for her brilliant performance. Villanelle has also been described as cocky, playful, ostentatious, and possessing a beauty constituting a "rather literally weaponized femininity" that is alluring both to Eve and to audiences. Cold, calculating, and callous, she "attracts sympathy and then immediately deploys it against whomever she faces." Villanelle is a "complexly written, deeply frustrating character", and "nearly impossible to not root for" despite lacking the likability that conventionally is the goal for female characters. She shows moments of questioning but never surrenders to regret. Lacking moral impetus or guiding principle for her killing decisions and motivated by bloodlust, greed and spite, "Villanelle's dysfunction is .... Discover the Amanda Giorgis popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Amanda Giorgis books.