Tag: interview

Pregnancy didn’t slow Olivia Colman down on The Night Manager

Posted on by BeverleyButterfly


If you’re familiar with the original John le Carré novel, you’ll notice a few changes when you see the BBC’s dramatisation of The Night Manager.

For a start, in the TV series the intelligence officer at the heart of the drama — named Burr — is female (on screen, she’s Angela; in the book, Leonard).

Secondly, in the TV adaptation, Burr is pregnant… a feat that even the most daring of male spies would struggle to pull off.
Why is Burr pregnant?

There was, reveals Olivia Colman, who plays Angela Burr, no mention of it in the script. But after the Broadchurch star was given the part, she found out she had a baby on the way. (We speak during filming, when Colman is five months pregnant. Colman’s third child, a daughter, was born in August.)

Colman admits that her pregnancy led to a difficult conversation.

Colman: “I went to see Susanne [Bier, the director]. thinking, ‘Oh God, should I mention it in the first meeting?’ And I thought: ‘I can’t lie.’ Which is why I’d be a rubbish spy.

“She said, ‘Oh… right…’ And didn’t look that pleased.

“But then she said, ‘You know, just go with it for a minute. Remember the film Fargo and Frances McDormand? The pregnancy added to the drama: the domesticity versus the extraordinary nature of her job. And I think it adds a weird power to this part, too.’”
What difference has Colman’s pregnancy made to the storyline? The answer — not a lot, “Beyond the odd person saying to Burr: ‘Aren’t you meant to slow down during pregnancy?’, to which she responds: ‘B***** off.’”

There is, however, one rather amusing change: Colman says that more chairs have been written into the script — so that she can deliver her lines without having to stand up for hours on end.

But, she says honestly, there’s one other difference too — for Colman, the actor.

“I just can’t retain my lines like I normally would. I’ve got a bit of nappy brain going on. There are an awful lot of script changes that happen. It can change the day before, on the day. It fills me with fear: ‘Oh Christ, I’ve barely got the script in my head and now I’ve got to change it.’ So it is a little bit hanging by my fingernails.”

Source: radiotimes.com – Olivia Colman says pregnancy didn’t slow me down on the Night Manager

Olivia Colman: “You can’t fake it as a charity patron, even if you’re an actor”

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Olivia+Colman+Summer+TCA+Tour+Day+2+X-yvFAMhDa9l “I am just an actor – all I do is I memorise someone else’s words and tart around,” says Olivia Colman, Bafta-award-winning actor and patron for anti-domestic violence charity Tender.

Within a few minutes of interviewing her, the self-deprecation that Colman is known for is revealed. “Some actors know much more [than me] but I’m aware of my limitations,” she tells me. But, perhaps this is what makes her an effective charity patron.

When faced with a number of requests from charities, Colman says she chose to focus on a few, carefully chosen causes. She became a patron of Tender less than a year ago, after approaching a range of charities while researching for her role as a domestic violence survivor in the film Tyrannosaur.

“I want to be helpful to the charities I support. I think you can dilute it, the more you do,” she says. “You have to be a bit strong about what you do … otherwise you risk spreading yourself a bit thin and you can be less useful.”

She explains that sometimes there are things “I just know I can’t do”. When approached by Comic Relief to appear in a fundraising film in Africa, Colman had reservations. “I said I don’t think you want me, I won’t be able to do it,” she says. “I’ve got no armour. If they’re suffering they don’t want some twatty actor turning up in tears.”

Eventually, Colman did find a good fit at Comic Relief, with young carers. She found filming for the TV event uplifting and while she still “still cried”, she realised that, when it comes to charity work, she’s “better at doing positive stuff”.

This is what drew her to Tender – its positive, preventative work and the fact that “it’s grassroots and gives people useful tools to lead a happy life.”

Tender was established in 2003 and works with young people to raise awareness of abuse and educate them around friendships and relationships. Its workshops are run in places like schools, youth centres, offices and healthcare settings.

“That’s the point of Tender – to try and get in there early,” Colman explains. “Teach people about the warning signs and children how to be a good friend and good partner. So that’s why I said yes to being a patron, it sort of made sense. I understood that.”

When I ask her what her advice is for anyone considering becoming a patron it was very considered: know your limits by not over-committing to causes and being sure it’s the right cause for you. But there’s one thing, self-deprecating as she is, that she doesn’t mention – hard work.

“I’m not trying to pretend, you know … it’s the staff who are doing the tough shit,” she tells me. While she acknowledges that “my job means I’m helpful” she doesn’t consider herself an expert. “If Susie [McDonald, Tender’s chief executive] were here she’d be much better than me at this … I’ll never be as knowledgeable as her,” she says.

But she reveals her commitment in other ways – attending Tender’s workshops, meeting beneficiaries and volunteers and even calling the charity before this interview to “apologise in advance in case I am not saying all the things you want me to say”.

Her eagerness to get it right is obvious as she adds: “I’m always keen to have more training as a charity patron.”

Like her day job, it seems there’s rather more to her charity work than memorising words and tarting around. Her advice for aspiring charity patrons shows as much: “Make sure it’s a good fit. You can’t fake it, even as an actor. You have to have a real passion for it.”

Source: theguardian.com – Olivia Colman: You can’t fake it as a charity patron even as an actor

Olivia Colman on slow success, Broadchurch fever and why she’ll do “anything” to be in Peep Show

Posted on by BeverleyButterfly

As the winner of three Bafta awards for Broadchurch, Accused and Twenty Twelve – including two in the same year – you might assume that Olivia Colman spends most of her time either filming or sifting between piles of possible scripts. Counterintuitively, though, greater success has brought more frequent unemployment.

“I think there’s a perception that I’ll be too busy,” she says. “So actually, after those first two Baftas, I didn’t really get offered anything, which makes you think: Oh, no! And, after I finished the second series of Broadchurch, nothing came up for six months, which really is a long time and I got a bit panicky.”

Her current schedule is rushed, however. Immediately after our conversation about the film London Road (in cinemas from Friday 12 June), she is flying to Morocco to resume shooting The Night Manager, a six-part BBC adaptation of a John le Carré novel.

Colman plays Burr, a British spy who was a man in the book but has been rewritten as a woman and – to accommodate the impending birth of the actress’s third child – a heavily pregnant one. Le Carré approved the changes when she met him, although the actress didn’t realise she had. “I didn’t know it isn’t his real name. At the read-through, I was chatting away to someone called David Cornwell, telling him how great the story was, without realising that he was John le Carré.”

Babies are a pressure on diaries and costumes that male screen actors are spared, but Colman says that she has always been lucky with morning sickness and, “It would be worse if I was having to hide it on screen because I’ve already got a waddle. But, so far, it’s always worked out for me that I’ve been able to be pregnant in the job I’m doing.”

In London Road, Colman does something she has never previously done on stage or screen – sing. When she was called to meet Rufus Norris, the new artistic director of the National Theatre, she perhaps imagined an invitation to give her Cleopatra or Hedda Gabler. But Norris – after an audition with a musical director – signed her up for his cinematic version of the stage show London Road by Alecky Blythe and Adam Cork.

Although most conveniently described as a musical, it resembles nothing previously attempted in that genre. Playwright Blythe conducted interviews with residents of the area in Ipswich where, in 2006, five women working as prostitutes were murdered by forklift truck driver Steve Wright. Verbatim extracts from these conversations were then set to music by composer Cork.

A local’s expression of apprehension – “Everyone is very nervous” – becomes an aria, while the guilty verdicts in Wright’s trial are sung by a chorus of TV news reporters. It is the most original piece of music theatre I have ever seen and the film retains the shock and originality.

“It was very difficult at the beginning,” Blythe recalls, “because there were no references for what we were trying to do. I’d say to the residents, ‘It’s a musical but it’s not like Mamma Mia, but then it isn’t an opera either.'”

The actors learned the words from tapes of the original speakers, with every hesitation and repetition included. Colman – who plays Julie, organiser of a scheme to rehabilitate the area after the killings – had to adjust, unusually for an actor, to being told-off for not stumbling enough: “Alecky would say, ‘There’s actually a count of three between the ‘um’ and the ‘but’.

Learning somebody else’s speech rhythms is very difficult. It would take me a whole day to learn one speech and my husband would be testing me and would say, ‘You missed out an ‘oh’ there’ and I’d think, ‘But it’s not even a proper word!’”

Source: radiotimes.com – Olivia Colman on slow success broadchurch fever and why she’ll do anything to be in peep show

Olivia Colman and Tom Hollander on Rev

Posted on by BeverleyButterfly

“It was important to us that the priest is not represented as a complete idiot in the show,” says Tom Hollander. He’s sitting in the over-salubriously wallpapered surroundings of a Soho private members club alongside co-star and on-screen wife Olivia Colman. But they’re here to talk about Rev, the thoughtful, slightly careworn sitcom that’s returning for a welcome third series. “In previous incarnations,” he continues, “whether it was Derek Nimmo or Rowan Atkinson or Father Ted, the priest or vicar is a bit of a twat. Adam Smallbone is the hero, with a very small ‘h’, of Rev. It’s the people around him who are the oddballs.”

The Reverend Adam Smallbone is fundamentally decent, but with none of the otherworldly airs of the stereotyped cleric. He’s not The Vicar Of Dibley, nestled in her cosy, reassuring, rural sitcomland. “It’s not Downton Abbey, it’s not a Sunday night, fear of Monday morning show,” says Hollander. Nor is it the cosy, bucolic England easily exportable to an American audience who, Hollander believes, would be put off by the programme’s “defeated sensibility” (although an American version of Rev is, apparently, at the development stage). As the downbeat opening credits suggest, this is England as a grey and unpleasant land of roundabouts, roadworks, blowing litter and blank indifference. “It does tell you about the day-to-day work of a vicar,” adds Colman, with the conclusion being: “It’s fucking hard.”

Smallbone is working on the frontline, at east London’s St Saviour’s In The Marshes. He is faced with economic woe on his doorstep, as personified by Colin, the derelict washed up from Moss Side, as well as near-empty pews and dwindling funds. He’s beset on all sides: by his own church, pressuring him to embrace some new half-baked initiative, by parents only attending services to get their kids into good schools, by jeering workmen and narky schoolkids. At the same time, Smallbone has to endure his own constant crises of faith in a God who offers no divine assistance whatsoever.

Wearied by his lot, and the Job-like tribulations and humiliations he must endure, he’s a man of small vices – a smoker and boozer who often wakes up to Nurofen breakfasts surrounded by the bottles and cans of the night before. He lusts pathetically after the local headmistress, is a disappointment in many ways to wife Alex, is given to jealousies, rivalries and even the odd “bromance” fixation. He’s got a potty mouth when persistently provoked, as those jeering workmen and schoolkids soon discover. But he’s not a whisky priest; and, for all the comedy at his expense, is not a fatuous figure of fun. He wavers all over the place, but ultimately is unshakeable in his sense of vocation, with each show enjoying what Hollander calls “moments of grace”.

There’s a lengthy list in Rev’s credits of ecclesiastical consultants, including the Rev Richard Coles, Radio 4 presenter and formerly of pop group the Communards. Hollander himself is involved in the research, in which he learned of the present-day church’s increasing role in making up for the shortfall in state provision for the poorest. “The most moving scene I saw was a church in Somers Town in London, near King’s Cross, which has been a poor place historically and continues to be. It was full of people who were sleeping [there] – asylum seekers and local people. We represented it in the background in the Christmas special but it wasn’t the centre of the story, it was context. But certainly, I’ve been taught through the research about what the work of the church actually is.”

The show works, however, not because it’s didactic but for its comedy and casting. Hollander talks of a “Dad’s Army” vibe, “an array of distinctive characters”. These include the suavely callous Archdeacon Robert, prone to dropping off Adam in the middle of nowhere on their pained taxi rides together, over-tactile parishioner Adoha, the combative Colin, as well as the stuffily ambitious, potentially treacherous lay reader Nigel (Miles Jupp). Then there is Adam’s wife Alex, a barrister who only reluctantly agrees to a life in a very unsecluded inner-city vicarage in which, as Colman says, “someone’s going to knock on your door at any fucking time of day or night”. Certainly, she demonstrates no particular religious instincts. “She’s atheist… isn’t she?” says Colman, looking to Hollander for guidance. “It’s never really been touched upon.”

Hollander: “Well, she’s agnostic, for sure – but she does pray…”

Colman herself is central to the appeal of Rev. Increasingly renowned for deceptive craft as an actor, she is darkly nuanced as Hannah in Tyrannosaur, a victim of domestic abuse with a very different sort of attachment to the Christian faith than Alex. She was superb as Sophie in Peep Show – the role in which she first came to prominence – who starts off as a Mark’s object of romantic longing, a distant English rose, but slowly degenerates into a frankly horrible, emotional mess of a character as the series progresses. She brings great emotional heft to the role of Sue in an episode of Jimmy McGovern’s Accused, a distraught anti-gun protester. Yet she can also turn in comedic performances, such as Green Wing, as if she were born to play nothing but fun parts.

Hollander’s pedigree is equally formidable. He plays villains, such as the devious and treacherous Lord Cutler Beckett in Pirates Of The Caribbean, trading as if on a small man’s complex with an overcompensating intensity and determination to do down his fellow man. At the same time, he is at home playing characters utterly out of their depth, such as the hapless, error-prone and easily manipulated Simon Foster MP in In The Loop. It is Rev, however, the series he co-created with writer James Wood, that seems most central and engrossing to him, closest to his soul.

That might be because, alongside the religion, there’s a more secular moral to Rev, too: the deep need for community and social interdependency, under siege in our stressed and straitened times. As a vicar, Adam has no choice but to face up to this reality every day. The church justly takes a bad rap nowadays, for instances of institutional bigotry, hypocrisy and cover-ups of child abuse. However, Adam Smallbone represents a facet of the church that’s just as real – a moral example of social responsibility, of “just doing good”, as Colman puts it.

Despite excellent reviews and a solid, highly loyal BBC2 audience, Rev feels like it can sink still deeper into the bosom of the nation’s affections. First broadcast in 2010, it was commissioned with remarkable swiftness, given the legendary snail’s pace of the comedy process. A second series followed but there’s been a lengthy delay prior to this third series. James Wood had given the impression in interviews that this was due to actors such as Colman and Hollander being too busy to commit to making new episodes, but both vehemently deny this. “That’s not true at all,” says Hollander. “James wanted a break and we all wanted a bit of time off. But also the delay was because a lot of research goes into preparing these series.”

Season three, in which Peep Show co-creator Sam Bain is also involved, adds the Smallbones’ baby, which duly brings with it a fresh hell of over-attentive parishioners, no sleep and marital sexual frustration. Plus, there are two new female administrative characters – an area dean, played by Joanna Scanlan, and a diocesan secretary (Vicki Pepperdine) – both of whom will add further to Adam’s daily stresses. He must also come to terms with Imam-envy and the gay marriage question in a series which, Hollander says, will see Adam – who is already “in constant negotiation with his faith” – tested to breaking point.

But then, that’s Adam’s inescapable quandary and his redemption: his calling, his bloody calling. “A lot of the comedy comes out of him doing the right thing in the name of this God who may or may not be there, in spite of all the appalling behaviour around him,” says Hollander. “The fact that he’s sticking by God and the church is an endless source of humiliation to him. And he’s in that predicament because of this vocation.”

All of which is why even an atheist/agnostic like his wife sticks with him and why even the atheist/agnostic viewer is minded to sympathise with, even root for Adam. Imagine having all those modern doubts, frustrations, anger about God but having to wear a smock and believe in the old bastard, too.

Despite its cautionary tone, it seems Rev has proven an attraction to aspiring young clergy. “Apparently, there are expanding numbers of people signing up for ordination,” says Hollander. “I’ve no idea if that’s to do with Rev, no one’s researched that, but at [Anglican theological college] Westcott House in Cambridge they do have the ordinants watch Rev to show them what it’s going to be like.”

“And they don’t all drop out?” asks Colman.

“No, they think, ‘Christ, I might get to marry Olivia Colman.'”

Rev starts on BBC2 on 24 Mar

Source: theguardian.com – Olivia Colman and Tom Hollander on Rev

7:39 star Olivia Colman speaks about her role

Posted on by BeverleyButterfly

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ACTRESS Olivia Colman has spoken about her role in BBC One’s The 7.39, which is set to begin on Monday, January 6.

Olivia plays the part of Maggie Matthews in the two-part romantic drama.

It follows the story of Maggie’s husband Carl and health club manager Sally Thorn, played by Epworth actress Sheridan Smith, who meet and start up a friendship on their daily commute.

Olivia discussed the role and the project in publicity material produced by the BBC and Carnival Films, which made the programme.

Tell us about Maggie and her life as Carl’s wife.

Maggie is not the main character but there is a lovely emotional journey that she goes through which is interesting to play. She is a very lovely woman and she loves her family. Maggie has a busy home life, she has two teenage children and she works as an occupational therapist. Carl, her husband, works hard and travels a lot on the train, as we find out. They have what looks like a very strong relationship and get on really well. They don’t have much time together or as much as they should have but they love each other and like each other’s little foibles.

Can you tell us a bit more about Carl and Maggie?

Maggie and Carl have been together for such a long time. In rehearsals we came up with a backstory that they met aged 19 at university. I think maybe in Carl’s head he didn’t have enough time to play the field, but there is no excuse! Carl and Maggie are

funny and great together. They have gotten into a rhythm of not necessarily listening, but still teasing each other and getting on – everything seems to be fine. Maggie is very happily married. Perhaps because they are such a great team, Carl took it for

granted and hadn’t realised that something so solid could be that fragile.

When do the cracks start to appear?

Quite late on Maggie becomes worried that there is something not right, but she puts it down to Carl being tired and disenchanted. Carl does start running out of the house a little too quickly and that arouses an even greater suspicion.

How does Maggie react when she finds out Carl has been cheating?

Maggie finds out her loving husband has been having an affair and is obviously angry. I don’t think anyone would react very well to that. She is hurt, upset and humiliated. She has to weigh up what has happened and where they are to go from there. There is something about Maggie that is really strong, she doesn’t think it’s worth losing him, they’re the actions of a warrior, she’s not giving up.

How did you find working with David Morrissey?

David Morrissey is lovely, we’ve never worked together before but we had met each other. It’s a treat to be working together; he’s a very nice man. The last two days of filming were particularly good. We were filming scenes of Carl getting in and out of

bed and I was genuinely fast asleep quite a lot of the time.

You’ve worked with John Alexander before?

John Alexander I love! We did Exile together a few years ago and he’s lovely. He’s a real actor’s director. It sounds a bit bonkers but he is very understanding and lets you get on with it. He understands when a take is good and doesn’t push to do it again – he doesn’t overkill as some people do. I can’t imagine anyone meeting him and not liking him, he’s a kind man with a lovely family and a strong Geordie accent. He is a real joy to be directed by.

How did you find working with Sheridan?

I love her! We only get one scene together and I see her with my husband. I’m really frosty with her.

Tell us a bit more about the story of The 7.39?

Something about falling in love on a train is a taboo. Neither Sally or Carl are free to fall in love with other people and this story shows the repercussions. Rather than just showing the couple and their love for each other, you see the hurt that is caused with the people at home, which I thought was interesting.

What was the appeal for you?

I like David’s writing, I read One Day last summer and was gripped by it. I like the way he has written this family, it feels very real and my character gets a cracking speech at the end of it!

What is the difference between this and other modern day love stories?

The difference between The 7.39 and other modern day love stories are the scenes you see at home; the fall out and repercussions of an affair. Also it’s not about teenagers or young twenty something’s falling in love. I think the reason Brief Encounter was taken into everybody’s heart was that it portrayed people in later life, people that had in theory already sorted out their lives, and yet still had this little

frisson with somebody else. That is what set Brief Encounter apart, and I think that’s what sets The 7.39 apart too.

How else is this story relatable?

I think if you have a job that doesn’t do it for you, it’s that boredom and repetitive lifestyle that people can relate to. That’s how those sorts of affairs come about; they make you feel attractive again so it is kind of understandable that it happens. The story sort of shows how you need to be aware of what you’ve got and appreciative of

each other and it is very beautifully written in that respect. David Nicholls is a wonderful writer, I did something of his years ago called Rescue Me and that was when I first became aware of him. I then read Understudy and of course, like the rest of the world, One Day and it nearly killed me, its beautiful. I have

read most of his books actually. David writes such beautiful, witty characters with a real emotional intelligence. The 7.39 is written so wonderfully because you can see why Sally and Carl love each

other and why they need each other in their lives. Carl and Maggie’s relationship has nothing wrong at home so it is sort of puzzling as to why Carl has the affair but its also why it’s interesting to watch.

It seems like Carl and Maggie have really got it made, but this shows that relationships are still fragile and can still be broken.

The 7.39 will be broadcast on BBC One at 9pm on Monday, January 6 and Tuesday, January 7.

New interview with Olivia Colman

Posted on by BeverleyButterfly

Olivia+Colman+Summer+TCA+Tour+Day+2+X-yvFAMhDa9lIt’s been a busy year for Olivia Colman. Next on screen in an adaptation of The Thirteenth Tale, the acclaimed actress talks to Phil Penfold.

It was a bit a hectic for Olivia Colman in the run-up to the New Year. She’d quite cheerfully agreed to be interviewed, and then turned up just a little late at the agreed venue, which was the BFI on the South Bank in London, and yes, more than a little breathless, and full of genuine apologies.

“I’m off to a wrap party for the new series of Rev,” she explained, and then grinned: “the twinkly silver top I’m wearing is because the theme is ‘Christmas’.” Olivia plays the much-put-upon clergyman’s wife Alex Smallbone in the hit BBC series, which returns in the New Year. And if you can’t get enough of Olivia (and frankly, who can?) there’s a new series of Broadchurch scheduled for the spring, and then a further two dramas for the New Year.

There’s 7.39, which looks at the effect that an affair that develops on a morning commute has on a family’s life, and The Thirteenth Tale, a chilling seasonal ghost yarn shot entirely in Yorkshire during the balmy summer of 2013 which screens over Christmas. Colman, 39, stars opposite screen legend Vanessa Redgrave in a powerful script by Christopher (Les Liaisons Dangereuse) Hampton. It is Hampton’s first TV screenplay in 20 years, and is based on the powerful, and best-selling, novel by Dianne Setterfield, who wrote it while working as a part-time French teacher at Harrogate College. As Olivia draws breath and settles down, the first question has to be why she was first interested in the role. After all, “ghost stories” are notoriously hard to make even slightly credible. Or even scary.

She thinks for a nano-second and smiles: “Look, I could have been offered a co-reading of the phone book with Miss Redgrave and I’d have done it, she’s such a legend and an inspirational actress, but with a script by Mr Hampton, it was a foregone conclusion, a no-brainer. Thinking about it, however, it was an extremely physical – in the emotional sense – part to do. I seem to have been doing a lot of crying in all my recent pieces for TV, because I’ve been playing a lot of unhappy women.

“I’ve got the feeling that when the people who cast films and plays see that you can ‘do crying’, you get a lot of jobs offered on the back of it. But I don’t resort to any trickery, believe me. No onions hidden in hankies or Tiger Balm rubbed under the eyes at the last moment. I just let my emotions come out. And if you’ve got a really five star script, and you find it moving, you can cry.”

Colman plays Margaret, a journalist who is asked by Redgrave’s character, Vida Winter, to come to her home near Ribblehead in North Yorkshire to make notes for a biography. The part struck a particular chord for Colman.

“My mother used to be a nurse in a home for the elderly, and when I was a teenager I’d often go along with her to work and watch as she encouraged the old people to recall their personal stories. The tales that they came out with were wonderful. So many vivid memories and recollections. I found it all so gripping. You’d hear a dear old souls saying things like ‘I went to school in a horse and cart’, and they’d re-live their wonderful lives.

“Margaret arrives to tease out the stories from Vida. What happens, of course, is that she finds them tangled, intriguing, and revelatory. It’s a thriller mixed with a spooky tale, and – I know this is me saying it, but it is true – it becomes more and more compelling”.

Not least, she admits, because of some of the atmospheric places in which the drama was shot.

“How can you film up in North Yorkshire, and not let the surroundings seep into everything that you do? One of the very first scenes is of Margaret getting off the train to Carlisle, and standing there alone at the station….there’s nothing else there. Just the wind and the sky and the moors. And I loved it – it was a magical time.”

The Thirteenth Tale is directed by York-born and Bootham School educated James Kent and the four-week shoot was intense.

“Margaret is a bit confused at first as to why this hugely popular author has asked her to even attempt her life story, but as the story progresses, it all becomes clear. There is a strange bond that both women have. It’s about twins. Twins are fascinating – being flippant, if I may, I always wanted to be a twin, and to be able to dress the other one up and say to her ‘You really do not look good in that’ – isn’t that terrible? There is a strange, almost uncanny bond between twins, and Thirteenth Tale taps so beautifully into that strange little mystery.”

Shot on location at various country estates, including Burton Agnes Hall, Brodsworth Hall and Duncombe Park, The Thirteenth Tale is also something of a showcase for Yorkshire.

“When I looked at the locations where we’d be shooting I thought ‘what a sublime treat this is going to be!’,” says Colman. “I have nothing but complete admiration for their owners and keepers (Brodsworth is in the care of National Heritage) of these houses for what they allowed us to do within their walls. I think it was Mr Cunliffe-Lister at Burton Agnes who said that it came as a bit of a surprise to be ‘taken over’, and to discover that his sublime and priceless Red Drawing Room when we’d finished dressing it up looked as if someone else had moved into his historic home. It was all down to the props department, of course. And we left it completely as we found it when we made our farewells.”

Working with Redgrave, she says, “was inspirational. You sometimes get the opportunity to be in the presence of some great ‘names’ in this industry, and you wonder if they are going to be ‘acting’ or doing it honestly and looking in to your eyes. And The Big V was the latter. She is very tall, very beautiful, very quick, and quite remarkable. And even more admirable because in most of our scenes she is laying down on a couch, or in bed. Now think about it – could you ‘act’ from a prone position?”

Is she a fan of supernatural thrillers herself? “Well, that all depends on how they are done. If they leave something to the audience’s imagination, then yes, I am. But there are so many which are totally bloody obvious, and you think ‘You stupid creature….you’ve just heard a hideous scream from the cellar or the attic for from behind that locked door…..and you are actually going to go towards it, rather than to make the quickest exit that you can?’ That’s just not rational, is it?

“I am a bit of a chicken. I remember watching the original film version of Carrie all those years ago and being totally terrified, but at the same time, loving it.”

Only days after Thirteenth Tale (“Oh God, people will be sick of the sight of me on the box, won’t they?”) comes 7.39, which also stars Yorkshire’s Sheridan Smith.

Colman says: “I’m playing a mum of two – as I am in real-life – whose husband has his head turned by a woman he sees on his way into work. I’m sure that there are a lot of people who regularly commute, same time, same carriage, same bus or train every day, who see the same faces, and who fantasise, but this goes a lot deeper. And Maggie hasn’t got a clue about what is unfolding, and cannot make sense in the changes in her husband.

“I found that so interesting – what happens to the person that you love, and whom you think you know, when they leave the house? The lesson from this one is ‘Let’s appreciate each other more’.”

And, she confides that while she may be one of the most in-demand actors around at the moment, it wasn’t always the case.

“A good few years ago, work was very sparse indeed, and I almost gave up. In fact, just to keep body and soul together, I got another job, and I used to do the dreaded commute myself. I hated it completely. For a start, I am not a morning person and it seems to take ages for my eyes to ‘unglue’.

“When you finally squeeze onto the train, there were fists in your back every day. People treading on your toes. And BO at 8am. Don’t people know how to wash? I hated every second of it, the sheer monotony. It used to make me very, very angry. Being wound up like a two-dollar watch, angry, tense, that’s not a good way to start your day.”

Then she pauses, thinks and chuckles: “Being picked up by a car, however, to drive a few miles to work opposite Vanessa Redgrave, in a lovely house like Burton Agnes…well, now, how jammy, completely, totally, five-star jammy, is that?”

The Thirteenth Tale is on BBC2 on December 30 at 9.30pm.
Source: yorkshirepost.co.uk – The big interview: Olivia Colman

Thirteenth Tale interview with Olivia Colman

Posted on by BeverleyButterfly

Olivia+Colman+Summer+TCA+Tour+Day+2+X-yvFAMhDa9lOlivia Colman, best known for her successful and vastly differing roles in Peep Show and Broadchurch, is proving herself as one of the country’s most versatile actresses.

Colman is about to take on another drama role, in the gothic BBC2 adaptation of best-selling novel The Thirteenth Tale – in which she plays Margaret, a reclusive literature lover who gets sucked into the mysterious world and dark past of writer Vida Winter (Vanessa Redgrave.)

Here she talks about the project.

What’s The Thirteenth Tale about and who do you play?

It’s quite difficult to describe, there are lots of pieces to it; flashbacks and modern day – a thriller and ghost story. It’s very exciting, it looks into this fascinating woman’s life and you see everything that’s happened, but it’s not necessary clear and you have to piece it together as you go along.

I play Margaret, who is a writer and she is asked by Vida to go and write her life story. She’s a little confused as to why she’s been asked in particular but that becomes clear later on, as Margaret has something in her background that Vida is interested in.

What attracted you to the project?

Is it too shallow to say that Vanessa Redgrave was in it and I wanted to work with her? That was a big part of it, but it’s also a beautiful story – one that you read for the first time and want to re-read it, to put in what you know into all the scenes you’ve enjoyed along the way. It was gripping.

You have some intense two-hander scenes with Vanessa. How was the experience?

The days running up to the Big V coming in were quite exiting and she is an incredible, charismatic, very tall, very beautiful, very, very bright, quick woman. She’s an extraordinary person and when you’re acting with her it’s really present and a really enjoyable experience. You never know beforehand if an actor is going to be really ‘acting’ or if they’re going to be looking in your eyes and doing it honestly and she is the second kind of actor. So it’s easy, you just play off each other and look at each other and she’s a consummate professional so it was really nice.

Was the location as you expected?

The location aspect was one of the most enjoyable parts of the whole film. I’d filmed in urban parts of that area before, but we were about an hour and a half out of Leeds to the North East and North West. It was unbelievably beautiful – my phone is full of videos of stunning countryside and I really want to go back and take my kids. It was an honour to go to film in those lovely houses.

I had a pre-conception of going to the moors: I thought it would be very bleak and dour but we were very lucky with the weather and it was beautiful. You can see why it has inspired so much literary beauty and depth and you can see why, if you’re a writer, you might go there. It was amazing – quite hard to come back to London.

Do you enjoy supernatural fiction?

I love darkness in stories but I am a bit of a chicken. I do remember watching Carrie as a child and being terrified, but loving it. I would rather go on the tea pot ride than the rollercoaster!

Did you read the novel before starting filming?

I know that because of time restraints you can’t show a whole novel in a film, so I didn’t want to read it in case I’d think that it was a shame we’d missed a certain bit. You just have to commit to the script that you’ve got and afterwards go back to the book for enjoyment purposes. My character just knows that story.

What kind of audience do you think that The Thirteenth Tale will appeal to?

I think that it’s got very broad appeal because it’s not heart attack material; it’s a gripping story, and the past of someone who’s led an exciting life and a long life is fascinating. I’ve always enjoyed hearing people’s stories from older generations and what it was like then and this shows you all of that. Also, it’s an extraordinary tale of children who are unloved and left but have each other… there is love there. It’s interesting and will appeal to any age group.

The Thirteenth Tale will premiere on BBC2. An air date has not yet been set.

Source: thenationalstudent.com – Interview with Olivia Colman