Jodi Balfour

Escape from Cape Town

Jodi Balfour was born in 1987 in South Africa, where she spent her early years in front of the cameras as a television host for young audiences. But the local market soon felt too small for her. In 2009, she decided to cross the ocean and settle in British Columbia, Canada, where she started from scratch auditioning for supporting roles.

Before she made it big, she worked in a coffee shop in Vancouver while waiting for a real break. Casting directors saw in her an unusual mix of coolness and warmth that didn't quite fit the typical profiles of the time. Then came the project that changed everything.

In 2012, she landed the role of Gladys Witham in the series Bomb Girls. The World War II drama let her play a upper-class woman who ends up working in a munitions factory. The show lasted just two seasons, but it was enough to get her name noticed in Los Angeles casting offices.

But the Canadian industry has its limits.

Balfour realized that to grow, she needed projects with bigger budgets and international visibility. She moved to the United States, and in 2016 she joined Quarry, a Cinemax series in which she played Joni. The show's dark tone suited her dry, direct acting style.

The challenge of playing historical figures

Playing Jackie Kennedy in The Crown during 2017 was an obvious risk to her reputation. Balfour had to face constant comparisons with the real figure and with other actresses who had played the first lady. Peter Morgan's script placed her in a tense episode where vulnerability was the key to the scene.

And the gamble paid off.

Critics praised her ability to replicate the Kennedy accent without falling into cheap impersonation. So Apple TV+ producers turned to her to lead one of their most ambitious projects in 2019. In For All Mankind, she played Ellen Wilson, an astronaut who must hide her sexuality during the space race.

Filming this series demanded considerable physical effort because of the zero-gravity scenes. Balfour spent months training with wires and harnesses so her movements would look natural on screen. The character evolves over several decades, and the actress had to sit through long makeup sessions to age convincingly.

Because realism was the priority for showrunner Ronald D. Moore.

New Records and Independent Productions

In 2023, she joined the cast of the third season of Ted Lasso to play Jack Danvers. Swapping a space drama for a British sitcom showed that Balfour can adapt to very different shooting schedules. Her character brought necessary tension to the series' business storylines.

Away from the spotlight of the major streaming platforms, she keeps a low and selective profile. In May 2024, she married fellow actress and creator Abbi Jacobson in a private ceremony in New York. The union confirmed her intention to keep her personal life away from the usual celebrity gossip circuits.

Balfour prefers to focus on auteur cinema when her schedule allows. In 2023, she released the movie Freud's Last Session, where she shares the cast with Anthony Hopkins and Matthew Goode. She plays Dorothy Burlingham in a story that examines the final days of the father of psychoanalysis in London.

This feature film had an approximate budget of seven million euros. Balfour shot her scenes on location in Ireland during the winter of that year under the direction of Matt Brown.