She counts some of the hottest Brit actors among her co-stars – from David Tennant to Paddy Considine – but Broadchurch sensation Olivia Colman’s goal is longevity in the business, rather than being seen as ‘that girl!’
Within five minutes of meeting Olivia Colman at the London offices of ITV she has described herself, variously, as ‘no great beauty’ and ‘the kind of girl who had to laugh men into bed’.
Then again, part of her attractiveness is that she doesn’t rate herself in the looks department and seems unaware of her open, likable face.
To add to the appeal, the 39-year-old actress has a smile like the sun bursting through, a conspiratorial X-rated laugh, and a way of describing things comically with actions and sounds instead of words.
‘When I’m out with my husband Ed [Sinclair], who is gorgeous, I see people look at us and sort of go, “Urghh?”’ she laughs, conveying jaws dropping to the floor.
‘Because they can’t believe that we’re a couple. But, you know, Ed and I are the wind beneath each other’s wings. Neither of us would be any good without the other.’
When she talks, Olivia’s dark eyes host a gamut of emotions – one second they can well with happiness and mirth, the next with empathy or sadness.
No wonder she is currently confusing casting directors. After all, she came to fame in funny roles such as long-suffering Sophie in Peep Show and Alex Smallbone, the delightfully saucy vicar’s wife in Rev.
But since her harrowing performance as the battered wife in director Paddy Considine’s 2011 film Tyrannosaur she’s been as much in demand for grit and pathos as she was for pratfalls and laughter.
Her recent TV roles have included a mother whose son is killed in a gang-related stabbing in Accused (for which she was named best actress at the Royal Television Society awards), and a policewoman investigating a boy’s death in the critically acclaimed Broadchurch.
On the big screen she played Carol Thatcher to Meryl Streep’s Margaret in The Iron Lady, and the Queen Mother alongside Bill Murray in Hyde Park on Hudson.
She is working with Paddy Considine again, this time co-starring with him in the ITV period detective drama The Suspicions of Mr Whicher: The Murder in Angel Lane. Olivia plays a wealthy woman searching for her missing niece. Here she talks about swapping comedy for corsets, and why this is the happiest time of her life.
Tyrannosaur was my Kathy Burke, Nil by Mouth moment. Before, I was the girl who does ‘feed lines’ in comedies but Paddy gave me the chance to show I could do something else. I still love comedy, but I’m so fortunate not to be pigeonholed and to be able to do both now.Working with Paddy again was blissful. I admire him both as a director and actor and we’re friends, too. So it wasn’t hard to find the immediate trust that my character Susan Spencer has for the ex-police Inspector Jack Whicher, when she asks him to help her find her niece.The costumes were amazing – especially for someone who’s never done proper period drama before. I wore white fur hats and full-length cream satin gowns. It was so cold during filming that I also wore thermals and at one point I had a hot water bottle up my skirt. Even the corset was great because it corrected my tendency to slouch.
My character is strong but tragic. She has lost everyone she ever loved and now her adored niece goes missing too. Fortunately, they do find her niece’s newborn baby early on so she’s got him to love. But she’s a pretty sad and lonely figure.
Working with a baby stirred my hormones. And even though I have two beautiful sons [Hal, seven, and Finn, five] I’m constantly broody. We got a gorgeous dog, Alf, to quell my yearning for another child but it hasn’t worked because, although I love him, he is a different species. My mum says, ‘These feelings go on well into your 60s.’ I’m starting to believe her.
My emotions have always been close to the surface. Watching weepy movies, I’ve always sobbed louder than anyone else. But since having children I seem to have no skin at all. As a result, I’m sure there are parts I’ve played since having my sons that I wouldn’t have done justice to before. But it’s awful in terms of life. I can’t watch Comic Relief without dialling in after every video. As for those fundraising guys in fluorescent bibs in shopping centres, I’m a total mug for them.
I’m good at putting roles to bed. And I’m not a method actress. I’m aware that acting is pretending and can’t imagine how it works with people’s heads if they struggle to leave the character behind.
I have a strong work ethic. It’s the way I was raised. My mum worked full time as a nurse and I grew up admiring her for doing an important job that she loved. What I do doesn’t matter nearly as much but I can see a little bit of that same pride in my kids.
Mum and Dad were feminists and I’m one too. Men and women have different lumps and bumps but we’re the same in the important ways. I’ve had lots of arguments about it.
I can’t stand girlie girls – women who think emptying the bin is a man’s job. I do love strong, independent, loyal, gutsy women, and I have lots as friends.
Ed is totally supportive. He started out acting but the work just dried up. And, actually, for him I think it was a bit of a relief because he’d always wanted to write and he’s brilliant at it. He is working on a novel now and he’s quite secretive about the process. Ed being at home also means that he can look after the children if I’m away, and he’s a far better parent than me. So, although I miss the kids terribly if I’m away working, I know our little boys are in the best possible hands. When I get back they go, ‘Oh no, she’s not going to cook is she? She’s bound to
burn something!’
It was love at first sight with Ed. He was studying law at Cambridge and I was at the teacher training college. We met doing drama at the Footlights [the university dramatic club]. He walked in and it was like a thunderbolt. I thought, ‘There’s the bloke I’m going to marry.’
Our marriage works for simple reasons. We’re incredibly proud, supportive and, most of all, nice to each other. Ed is my best friend and, although I’ve been with him since I was 20, I still totally fancy him.
I was never attracted to bad boys. I always thought, ‘What’s appealing about that?’ I see women involved with horrible men and think, ‘Really? Why?’ But, then, as a child I was always made to feel totally worthy of love and I never tire of telling my kids how much I love them, either. I think it helps if you go into the world expecting to be loved. I’m never cast as the love interest. I’m just not seen as that girl. The closest I came was playing Sally Owen in the BBC2 series Twenty Twelve. I thought, well, she’s the single one who’s fallen in love with her boss, Hugh Bonneville’s character Ian Fletcher, and he sort of begrudgingly likes her back. It was enough, so I said yes to the part.I loved working with Bill Murray in Hyde Park on Hudson. He’s always been a hero and a legend, so I thought, ‘Oh, please be nice!’ I’d have hated him to be a disappointment, but he was fantastic. During filming he left me a phone message about hooking up for a drink at the Groucho. Sadly, the dates got messed up so I missed the chance of getting p***** with him. I kept the message for months until my phone automatically deleted it!
I’m sometimes mistaken for a comedian. So I’ve been invited on to comedy panel shows. But I’m an actress who makes other’s people’s lines funny and I’d be terrified without a script. I couldn’t write a funny line, either. Not with a gun to my head.
I did laugh Ed into bed, though. The same as I did with boys before him, because I’m just not the archetypal looker. You see a row of girls and go, ‘There’s the classic beauty.’ And that was never me. I never really minded and I’m grateful now because I think it’s so much harder for beautiful actresses to last in the business.
Longevity is my goal. And I admire actresses such as Judi Dench who’ve achieved it, because we can all name actresses who were loved but then slipped off the radar. That would break my heart because I love acting.
I’m staring down the barrel of 40. I’m aware it can be a time when actresses are passed over for those with fewer wrinkles, but I’m OK with it. As a concession I’ve joined a gym; I’m determined to have a six-pack by my 40th birthday next January. My sister said, ‘Do you think that’s possible?!’ And I said, ‘F*** off! Of course it is.’
Olivia’s not my real name. It’s one I chose because there was already an actress registered at Equity with my birth name, Sarah. Not that anyone ever used it. To friends and family – including my parents – I’ve been Colly ever since I got the nickname at primary school.
I loved working with Meryl Streep on The Iron Lady. I was starstruck on day one, but I needn’t have been because she’s a lovely, normal woman with four kids and a life. She’d happily sit on the sofa and have a giggle with us now. I love that she called me ‘divinely gifted’ at the Baftas. Bribing her to say that was the best fiver I ever spent!
I’m defensive of my famous co-stars. Once, walking along the road with Tom Hollander, who plays Rev, a guy just stuck a camera in his face. I yelled, ‘This is a man! He is not a pigeon!’ Tom shuffled off, horrified. Same deal with David Tennant who drew crowds when we worked on Broadchurch. He’s amazing, of course, and I’d queue too for his autograph, but people forget he’s human. You need to remind them.
I’m from a family of jokers. We’ve always taken the p*** out of each other. Occasionally it could overstep the mark and end in tears, but mostly it was fun. It’s probably where my sense of humour comes from.
I loved working on Peep Show. David Mitchell and Robert Webb are my favourite people ever. We met in the Cambridge Footlights, aged 19, so we grew up together. We can’t believe we’re all earning money at the job we hoped to do. It still makes us giggle.
Neither Tyrannosaur nor Accused were my most glamorous moments. In fact, in the latter we had a no make-up policy. Anne-Marie Duff and I joked that we looked like total s*** in it, but neither of us really cared – if you do, you’re not doing your job properly.
I’d love to be in a big Hollywood movie. I’ve always imagined that you’d have to look like a higher level of human being, not the female equivalent of everyman, like me! If I got the call I’d go because it would be a real adventure for Ed, me and the kids. Would I worry about uprooting us for a while? Not at all. We are family and wherever we are together is home.
Source:dailymail.co.uk – Im never cast as the love interest
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