Jodie Comer spent time at home with a baby doll to prepare to play a mother in The End We Start From.

In the new film, the Killing Eve star plays Mother, who has to survive an environmental crisis and civil unrest with her newborn baby.

Director Mahalia Belo encouraged Comer to get used to holding a baby by practising with a doll at home.

“I had a doll that I had to bring home because May was like, ‘I want you to hold the baby whilst you’re cooking your tea, whilst you make yourself a coffee, while you take the laundry out of the washer,’ to get really comfortable,” she recalled to Collider.

The Free Guy star admitted the doll gave her brother a shock when he found it in her house.

“I remember my brother came to stay with me while I was shooting, and he came in while I was gone, and he was like, ‘What is this baby propped up?'” she said. “The baby was sat up on the sofa, and he sent me a picture and he was like, ‘What the hell is going on?’ So that was enough of a shock, I think.”

While the preparation seemed odd to outsiders, it really helped Comer prepare for holding her real baby co-stars for the majority of the film.

“Especially because the first babies that I met were eight weeks old, and my hands were visibly shaking when I held them for the first time,” she explained. “I could use that for the reality of what it’s like to be a new mother when you’re like, ‘Okay, I’ve read all the baby books, but actually nothing has prepared me for this moment when I have my baby in my hands.'”

The End We Start From is in cinemas now.

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