Olivia Colman is compassionate, wickedly funny and insanely talented

113848087-1Olivia Colman is to acting what Germany is to car making and gravity is to the universe – she is technically excellent and manages to be everywhere all at once. Two Bafta TV nominations this year – an unusual combination of best supporting actress (for Accused) and best comedy performance (for Twenty Twelve) prove how diverse her talents are. You could even say she is to acting what Gareth Bale is to football: hailed by peers, critics and millions of viewers.

From the soft-shelled cop in Broadchurch to the Queen Mother in Hyde Park on Hudson to foul-mouthed marriage counsellor in I Give It a Year to saucy vicar’s wife in Rev and, soon, Sheridan Smith’s love rival in David Nicholls’s BBC1 romantic drama The 7.39, she manages to steal scenes while staying firmly in character. With such outrageous talent you might expect her to be a diva to work with, but her co-stars are her biggest fans. Meryl Streep, no slouch in the acting department herself, called Colman “divinely gifted” during her own 2012 Bafta acceptance speech (Colman played her daughter Carol in The Iron Lady).

Typically, asking actors to explain a colleague’s mastery of their art is a thankless task. Actors are always busy or, if not, keen to pretend they are. Many have a habit of moving on emotionally from a project once it’s finished. And of course they often fall out with each other. In the case of Colman, however, David Tennant was on the phone within minutes of a tentative approach from Radio Times.

“Before Broadchurch I’d only worked with Olivia once, on a bone-dry read-through of a brittle sitcom that got binned by bored executives,” says Tennant of his co-star. “I’d seen her work for years and she gave the impression of being really sound and straightforward and unpretentious. So when I met her and found she really was those things, it was a massive relief.”

What’s her secret? “She has this ability to be joking between takes and then, when the cameras roll, to be instantly in the heart of the darkness – which is irritatingly perfect from someone as alarmingly down to earth,” he jokes. “The one thing she hated about filming Broadchurch was how she found each situation so appalling that she’d genuinely be in floods of tears during scenes. She kept trying to stop, saying, ‘I shouldn’t be crying, I’m a police officer.’ But it came to represent the part so well.

“We have a similar outlook on life and work, although she’s a devil, always trying to get us to go out and get drunk while I’m always keen to get home early and make a cup of tea, so we counteract each other’s excess. I hope she wins both awards, unless there’s a friend of mine I haven’t noticed on either list, in which case I’ll be appalled – and that’s my official statement.”

Tennant, of course, is a true gentleman. But Colman’s name brings an equally rapid reaction from colleagues she’s worked with across her career.

Her co-stars in Twenty Twelve – Hugh Bonneville, Amelia Bullmore and Jessica Hynes – are effusive and jovial. “Olivia thinks talking about acting technique is a load of old twaddle,” Bonneville explains. “She’s right, of course, but just for the record I want to share this observation: Olivia Colman can’t act. There, I’ve said it. She really can’t. She can’t act because she can only be: she has a phenomenal ability to be utterly spontaneous in every role she plays, even though it may have been rehearsed for six weeks or, in the case of Twenty Twelve, six minutes. Her comedic and dramatic range is extraordinary, as is her natural gift of being loved by everyone she works with. What a cow.”

Amelia Bullmore agrees. “What Olivia does is this: she turns up on set, giggles a bit, wrinkles her nose at herself, smiles at everyone, goofs about, gets to a take and then says what she has to say with a lightness of touch and live-ness and see-through-ness that is truly rare, as many times as is required, and then resumes the nose-wrinkling and goofing. It’s double finesse – what she’s able to do, and how insouciantly she wears that remarkable skill.”

Of course, this isn’t completely unexpected. When the 2012 movie Bafta shortlists were announced, the strongest trending topic on celebrity Twitter feeds was “Wot, no Colman?” David Baddiel, Shappi Khorsandi and Josie Lawrence all expressed surprise. “Shocked and disappointed with Bafta voters,” tweeted Great Expectations and Exile star Shaun Dooley. “You will not see a finer performance by an actress than Olivia Colman in Tyrannosaur. Not happy!”

Why does Colman demand such respect? In part, clearly, it’s her raw talent. She went to Cambridge with dreams of being a primary school teacher. Robert Webb and David Mitchell knocked that plan off course when she met them at an audition for the Cambridge Footlights. For a while, after drama school, she was best known as Webb and Mitchell’s female foil, goofing around in both Peep Show and That Mitchell and Webb Look, before moving into warmer supporting roles in comedies like Green Wing, graduating to dramas like Tyrannosaur, Accused and Broadchurch, while keeping her foot in the comedy camp with Rev. “She’s fantastic and can do anything,” Webb explains. “She’s very funny but also a great dramatic actress.”

In following this arc, she joins a very small, elite band of performers who are equally at home with intense drama and ridiculous slapstick. Many have tried it – from Eddie Izzard to Steve Coogan – but only a handful – like Hugh Laurie or Julie Walters – succeed. John Simm knows why Colman can.

When Olivia was cast as my sister in Exile, I was already a huge fan of her work, which at the time had been mainly comedy,” he explains. “I made sure I sat next to her in the read-through so I could talk to her about Rev. Exile was a pretty full-on, disturbing story so it could have been a pretty bleak filming experience, but it ended up being one of the most enjoyable jobs I’ve ever done. This was down, in no small part, to Olivia. It really was a joy to go to work, with her as my sis. We laughed. A lot. And what an actress. From our first scene together we seemed to just click. She makes it look effortless. She’s not acting, she’s being.

“This may seem like a cliché, and there’s a risk it’ll make her puke, but in this case it really is a hundred per cent true. As anyone who has worked with her will confirm, Olivia Colman is one of the most beautiful, genuine, compassionate, wickedly funny and insanely talented human beings on the planet. And next time I see her she’ll probably cuff me round the ear for this.”

Colman, by all accounts, is so fundamentally nice that she charms cast and crew alike. Even Jessica Hynes, her rival for a Bafta for Twenty Twelve, offers unstinting praise. “Olivia has a luminescent quality. She shines in everything she does. She is a responsive listener and brilliant at channeling her character’s emotions and letting that do the talking.”

And then, not even through gritted teeth, she adds. “I agree with David. She should win both awards – this is definitely a Colman year and hopefully the first of many.”

FIVE OF HER BEST

1. Broadchurch

As local cop DS Ellie Miller, passed over for promotion by David tennant’s abrasive newcomer DI Hardy, Colman steals the show with her no-nonsense anoraks, tears and fear of becoming hardened. She’s kindly, tough, irritable and very real — making the killer plot finale a thrilling heartbreaker.

2. Rev

Alex Smallbone — Colman’s passionate, smart and straight-talking solicitor wife of Tom Hollander’s hapless inner-city vicar Adam — mixes charm and sex appeal with some of the best swearing on TV..

3. Accused

Colman turns in an award-winning (and Bafta-nominated) performance as Sue, who watches her best friend Mo (Anne-Marie Duff) take a stand against gang culture on their grim estate, only to suffer a tragic loss herself when the backlash starts.

4. Tyrannosaur

Colman brings a curious sense of hope and transcendence to another award-winning role — a demanding job in the face of an emotional waterboarding from writer/director Paddy Considine. Hannah, a charity-shop worker, is viciously abused by her husband (Eddie Marsan) and assailed by an alcoholic stranger (Peter Mullan) who bullies his way into her life.

5. Peep Show

The deliciously awkward Sophie — initially the object of hopeless obsession for David Mitchell’s Mark, later becoming his girlfriend and, briefly, his wife — proved Colman’s breakthrough role after years of playing minor characters.

Source: radiotimes.com – Olivia Colman is compassionate wickedly funny and insanely talented

Just call it the Olivia Awards!

Olivia+Colman+Press+Room+British+Television+5wr8c-bx41lxHer face may have been familiar. But before the runaway success of Broadchurch, you may not have known her name.

Last night, however, Olivia Colman changed all that when she picked up two awards at the Baftas – days after she revealed she thought she’d miss out on roles because she wasn’t ‘the archetypal looker’.

Indeed, the normally mild-mannered actress was so shocked at her win that she turned the air blue muttering ‘f***’ before quickly apologising.

Miss Colman, 39, won the award for best supporting actress for her performance in BBC1’s Accused (Mo’s Story) and for best female in a comedy for her part in BBC2 Olympics satire Twenty Twelve.

The star, who has two sons, topped off a successful year when she appeared alongside David Tennant in ITV1’s crime thriller Broadchurch, She has also starred as Margaret Thatcher’s daughter Carol in The Iron Lady.
But last night she was honoured for her portrayal of Sue Brown, the mother of the victim of a gangland killing in The Accused.

The actress, who looked glamorous in a purple dress, said: ‘I can’t believe it. I keep thinking it’s wrong. I feel very wobbly. I thought I might be in with a chance for Accused, because it is such a beautiful script. But Twenty Twelve, I didn’t think, because I was against such wonderful talents.’

She added: ‘Hollywood hasn’t called, unless they have got a digit wrong. Of course I would go if they asked. It’s warm and they pay better. I wouldn’t like to live there as I’ve got a family, but who wouldn’t go for a couple of years.’

In an interview last month she said: ‘I’m never cast as the love interest. I’m just not seen as that girl.  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.’

And her shock was apparent each time she was welcomed back on stage by host Graham Norton After the second trophy for her role in Accused, Olivia told the crowd while looking clearly delighted: ‘Thank you to my agents… I love you and I’m never, ever leaving! Also to Mr Hands, my first drama teacher, thank you very much. To my husband and best friend.’She then quipped jokingly: ‘And my children, if you’re watching it looked like I said a bad word, I didn’t… oh and my parents for babysittting, thank you very much.’

But her shock was even more visible as her name was read out for the third time for her role in Twenty Twelve.

Appearing choked she said: ‘I’m really sorry – (other category nominees) Miranda, Jess and Julia, three girls who I just love. I really didn’t expect it. Thank you so much.’The 39-year-old actress told BANG Showbiz at the winner’s press conference: ‘I’m a bit wobbly. I just can’t believe I’ve won. I keep thinking it’s wrong and they’ve made a mistake.
‘I thought I might be in with a chance for the drama award because Accused is such a beautiful script. But the comedy award I didn’t think I would stand a chance against those girls.’

Source: dailymail.co.uk – Olivia Colman finally leading lady picks up trophies for BAFTAs

Broadchurch stars go teetotal

olivia_colman_5604329Olivia Colman says the cast of TV hit Broadchurch stayed away from alcohol while on the drama – in case it led them to accidentally give away the name of the killer.

The TV crime drama, which also starred David Tennant and has been recommissioned for a second series, was a huge hit for ITV, attracting 10 million viewers.

The Daily Mirror quoted Olivia, who played Det Sgt Miller, as saying: “We all stayed on the soft drinks at parties as nobody dared to cough up that information.

“You would have let down the team if it had come out.”

She said of Broadchurch’s success: “It was nice to remind ourselves that as a nation we are fairly intelligent viewers and we like intrigue.”

Source: hellomagazine.com – Broadchurch stars go teetotal

Olivia says she wont ask for pay rise for Broadchurch second series

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Olivia Colman has said that she won’t ask for an increased wage when she returns for Broadchurch’s second series.

Majorly hinting that her character DS Ellie Miller will be seen in the hit drama’s sophomore run next year, the star is quoted by today’s Sunday Mirror as insisting that she’s just happy to be in work.

“It would be a bit much to go in and ask them to up my fee,” she said.

“I’m just grateful for a job. I don’t want to shoot myself in the foot.”

Broadchurch was a massive hit for ITV1 in March and April, with the final episode of the murder mystery attracting just under 10 million viewers.

The show, which saw Colman play alongside David Tennant as one of the main investigators on the case, has been renewed for a second “very different” run of episodes, due to air in 2014. Olivia, 39, says she’s seen what creator Chris Chibnall has in mind, and is very excited.

“It won’t be the same format again,” she said. “It sounds really, really exciting and I think it will be even better.”

The tabloid also quotes her as saying that her friends and family were annoyed with her for not telling them who the killer was first time around.

“My mum and dad were furious I wouldn’t tell but we’d signed so many confidentiality agreements,” she said.

Source:entertainmentwise.com – Olivia Coman wont ask for pay rise for Broadchurch series two

Broadchurch sensation Olivia Colman: ‘I’m never cast as the love interest’

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

Olivia wouldnt say no to Broadchurch season two

Olivia+Colman+Iron+Lady+European+Premiere+3Zl_cwwqIFPl Olivia Colman’s DS Ellie Miller captured our imagination in ITV’s recent detective drama Broadchurch and ever since its dramatic conclusion last week, the public have speculated on what could possible be in store for the “very different” second series. Will Colman and her co-star David Tennant participate is the question on everybody’s lips, so imagine our excitement when we got the chance to pose it to the lady herself.

Speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com at the Bafta nominations party, Colman revealed she’s definitely on board for Chris Chibnall’s follow up – as long as she’s asked back…

“Well obviously yes, but it depends,” she said. “I don’t know what they’ve decided. I won’t say no.”

And despite having the telly-viewing public on tenterhooks when the Broadchurch finale was broadcast last Monday, it turns out Olivia didn’t have the luxury of watching it go out live. “I had to wait. My husband was at boxing class so I had to watch it with a half hour delay which was really frustrating.”

We can imagine! But it turns out that although the cast didn’t know the identity of the killer until the final episode was filmed, a few of them had their money on Ellie’s suspiciously nice husband, Joe (played by Matthew Gravelle). “We had everybody’s pictures up in the make up man and everyone put a sticker underneath who they thought it was and I got one! I was thrilled to get one but [Joe] got a few. He was too nice. Isn’t that awful that someone’s too nice?”

But the 39-year-old actress – who is nominated twice at this year’s Bafta Television Awards (for best female comedy performance and best supporting actress) – doesn’t rate her chances of success too highly. “I think I probably won’t get it but it’s lovely to be nominated.”

Source and to see the full interview: Radiotimes.com – Olivia Colman wont say no to Broadchurch series two

Broadchurch Star Olivia Colman Teases Season Two As She Reveals It Was ‘Awful’ Finding Out Killer’s Identity

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Olivia Colman was undoubtedly the stand out star of ITV’s smash hit drama Broadchurch which came to an end this week. And now with the killer’s identity finally out in the open, the actress has revealed just how “awful” if was to learn who was behind Danny Latimer’s murder.

Colman played police detective Ellie Miller in the crime series which followed a seaside community in the aftermath of the murder of a young boy. In Monday night’s explosive finale, Olivia’s character discovered the killer was her nice as pie husband Joe, with the actress confessing it was incredibly hard to deal with the plot twist.

“Most people, I think, kind of had an inkling as they were watching, ‘he’s too nice, we haven’t heard about him’ but it didn’t really matter that you’d made that leap, by the time it ended it was a whydoneit, howdoneit”, Olivia tells Digital Spy, “but finding out it was him was awful, he was lovely. I was really sad!”

Olivia Colman was undoubtedly the stand out star of ITV’s smash hit drama Broadchurch which came to an end this week. And now with the killer’s identity finally out in the open, the actress has revealed just how “awful” if was to learn who was behind Danny Latimer’s murder.

Colman played police detective Ellie Miller in the crime series which followed a seaside community in the aftermath of the murder of a young boy. In Monday night’s explosive finale, Olivia’s character discovered the killer was her nice as pie husband Joe, with the actress confessing it was incredibly hard to deal with the plot twist.

“Most people, I think, kind of had an inkling as they were watching, ‘he’s too nice, we haven’t heard about him’ but it didn’t really matter that you’d made that leap, by the time it ended it was a whydoneit, howdoneit”, Olivia tells Digital Spy, “but finding out it was him was awful, he was lovely. I was really sad!”

Source: entertainmentwise.com – Broadchurch star Olivia Colman reveals it was awful finding out the killers identity he was so lovely

Olivia Colman fears her career could be killed off as she gets older

Olivia+Colman+Iron+Lady+European+Premiere+3Zl_cwwqIFPl Worried Broadchurch star Olivia Colman is ­facing another cliffhanger – over fears her ­acting work will dry up as she gets older.

The Sunday People can report that the 39-year-old TV favourite revealed: “It’s harder to get roles as you get older.”

And now, after celebrating nominations for two TV gongs last week, Olivia has ­demanded ­attitudes MUST evolve.

She said: “I have a lot of friends that should be working and aren’t and that’s a real ­mystery and needs to change.”

But canny Olivia has a secret weapon – she revealed last month she lands good parts because she’s NOT a pin-up.

Olivia said: “I feel fortunate I’m not a classic beauty.

“I feel it is harder for girls who are like that. There are fewer parts,” she added.

And she certainly doesn’t have to worry about her future yet.

The mum of two, who shot to fame in cult comedy Peep Show, is nominated at next month’s Bafta TV awards for gritty legal drama Accused and Olympics send-up Twenty Twelve.

She is now one of TV’s most ­in-demand actresses and is likely to be back for a second series of ITV whodunnit Broadchurch.

She plays DS Ellie Miller – wife of child killer Joe – opposite former Doctor Who David Tennant, 42, as DI Alec Hardy.

She said: “The writer Chris Chibnall phoned up all the cast recently to tell us about it. It does sound really, really exciting.

“I’m not sure if I’m allowed to say whether everyone is back on board. Let’s put it this way I will definitely say yes if they ask me.”

She added: “I thought this series was so great maybe it was best to leave well alone but then Chris ­explained his idea and I knew it would be good.”

Broadchurch – which regularly pulled in more than seven million viewers – was filmed in Bridport, Dorset and Bristol.

Some of the new series is likely to be shot in London.

Olivia said: “It was quite ­intense to film and most of us have families so there’s talk of doing the indoor scenes in London which would make a huge amount of difference.”

Source: mirror.co.uk – Broadchurch star Olivia Colman fears her career could be killed off as she gets older

Is Olivia the new Judi Dench?

113848087-1 Ten years ago I made my last television acting performance. It was the first series of a brand new sitcom. The idea was new and exciting. The programme would be shot using head cameras on the two main characters. The result would be edgy, jerky close up images. The audience would be see through the eyes of the protagonists and it was to be called P.O.V (point of view). Yes you are right, the title didn’t exactly trip off the tongue, so before the series was aired it was changed…… to Peep Show.

The cast was oozing with young new talent. Robert Webb, David Mitchell and Olivia Colman. The boys quickly became household names. They were given their own series and have achieved huge and well deserved success. Olivia was more of a slow burn.

We were filming in a crematorium for the day. Progress was slow and I chatted to Olivia outside our respective winnebagos (which sounds much smarter than it was). She was young, relatively inexperienced but excited to be playing a lead role in a groundbreaking new series. We were all crossing our fingers it would be a success. It was.

Then came the next TV show: Rev. Olivia was, of course, marvellous in Rev. She is marvellous in everything she touches, but I think it was during Twenty Twelve, the Olympic spoof sitcom, written by the magnificently talented John Morton, that my love affair with Olivia really began. Each line, each nuance was so delicately and charmingly delivered. In just one look we knew this downtrodden, unnoticed secretary was in love with her boss. The more Hugh Bonneville’s character ignored her, the more our hearts went out to her. I have never seen a sandwich made with such care or a band aid applied with such underlying sexual tension.

So it seemed last night most of Britain, or certainly most of my Twitter timeline, gathered together to watch the denouement of Broadchurch. To be honest I don’t often devote myself to long running detective dramas. They involve too much commitment even with the joys of Sky +. But after the first trailer the die was cast. I had to watch. Olivia was in it. If Olivia is in it I have to watch.

There were other people in this drama. David Tennant made an appearance, but my eyes were on Olivia because for all the twists and turns, for all the suspects and false alleyways, this drama was about one thing and one thing only. By the time we had reached last night’s episode I think most people had guessed it was Olivia’s on screen husband who had committed the deed. It didn’t matter that it was revealed early on in the episode. What mattered was Olivia’s character’s reaction to it. And she delivered. Because she always does. Wretching, kicking, screaming and silently weeping, her bottom lip trembling, Olivia can do it all. Never overplayed, always totally believable.

So why do we all love her so much? Because she has the uncanny ability to touch a piece of all of us. We are all her and she is us. Not an untouchable movie star, a real woman who is vulnerable yet strong. Her comedy is immaculate and her tragedy heart-rending.

She is modest, charming and real; the nation’s new Judi Dench.

There are times when the nation falls in love with a passing fad, a fashionable icon. Last night my Twitter feed proved that we had fallen in love, not with glamour, not with superficial beauty, but with pure, pure talent.

Source: telegraph.co.uk – Broadchurchs Olivia Colman is the new Judi Dench

Is amazing Olivia Colman the new Helen Mirren

Olivia+Colman+Iron+Lady+European+Premiere+3Zl_cwwqIFPlart Down on the South Coast, it is the end of a perfect summer. Every evening, the lowering sun turns the Dorset cliffs the colour of molten honey, before sinking behind a landscape of lush fields and church spires.

Every morning the sun ripens and rises again, beating down upon a small seaside town with a sparkling shoreline — and a dark secret.

For in the dead of a hot summer night, for reasons yet unknown, 11-year-old Danny Latimer was murdered and found at the foot of the cliffs.

Against the jolly backdrop of bucket ’n’ spade gift shops and ice-cream sellers, the horror of his death seems even more shocking.

As his parents grieve, the detectives scout for clues and the community turns in on itself, the question everyone is asking is: who is the killer in Broadchurch?

In the hit drama from ITV, Detective Sergeant Ellie Miller is played with quiet brilliance by the actress Olivia Colman.

Ellie is the simpatico local cop with insider knowledge, but she has been passed over for promotion by brash newcomer Detective Inspector Alec Hardy (David Tennant).

However, the traditional cop-on-cop conflict has been turned on its head.

While Tennant, the former Doctor Who, is clearly the big marquee name hired to bring in the crowds, he is frequently outshone by Colman.

Indeed, there is barely a scene between the two of them that she does not steal.

With her no-nonsense anoraks and cross-body bags, Ellie is tough yet empathetic, kindly, irritable and so real that you feel you know her.

Whether snatching lunch with her family, dishing out holiday presents to her colleagues or confronting her abrasive boss, Colman is extraordinary at being ordinary — perhaps the hardest thing for an actress to achieve.

In the past, she has done comedy and drama: she is one of those rare actresses who can switch between the two while being tremendous in both.

She has one of those faces that is instantly familiar to TV viewers, but her ability to disappear into a role and cast makes it hard to pin down her work.

She has appeared in, among others, Peep Show and Green Wing. The 39-year-old actress also won a new fanbase as the vicar’s wife in the comedy drama Rev and — surely this is everyone’s favourite — as Hugh Bonneville’s love-struck PA in the hit BBC comedy Twenty Twelve.

Despite winning a host of movie awards for Tyrannosaur and critical acclaim for her role as Carol Thatcher, complete with a blonde wig, in The Iron Lady, her role in Broadchurch is being seen as her big breakthrough.

Some believe it might do for Olivia Colman what playing a similar type of detective in Prime Suspect did for Helen Mirren — pave the way for a Hollywood career.

Modest Olivia would probably beg to differ. She believes that part of her success as an actress is her lack of vanity: she doesn’t mind looking a frump on stage or screen.

Certainly, as windswept Ellie in a rubber mac searches for bloodstains on boats in the harbour or tries to console a bereaved mother at the end of a long police shift, she looks as glam as a wet haddock. And that is the way she likes it.

No wonder that Colman — who recently won a Best Actress Award from the Royal Television Society for her role in Accused — has been described as ‘divinely gifted’ by none other than Meryl Streep, who starred in The Iron Lady.
That’s not to say co-star Tennant is disappointing as the troubled Hardy in Broadchurch.

With all the social skills of a dropped anvil, he is a cop with a past; a man tormented by a similar murder case he failed to solve.

He also has an unspecified illness, where he blacks out and bangs his head if he runs out of pills.

Still, whatever he is going through, audiences wait quietly for the return of Ellie onscreen.

For in Broadchurch, it is Colman’s character that provides the emotional still centre; she is the voice of reason in a community racked by grief and suspicion.

She is the person everyone turns to — even as she becomes suspicious herself.

‘I hate what I am becoming,’ she said to her boss Hardy this week.

‘A good detective?’ he wondered. Hardened,’ she replied.

Four episodes into ITV’s gripping new drama and viewers are still no nearer the truth. Like Cluedo addicts, we nurture pet suspicions as we pore over the evidence.

Was it the insomniac vicar in the graveyard with a hammer? Was it the newsagent in the scout hut with a rolled-up copy of Tit-bits? Was it the dad? The dog? The scary lady in the caravan? Everyone is desperate to find out.

In the meantime, with more than seven million tuning in every Monday evening to see what happens next, Broadchurch has been a big hit with viewers. It is not hard to see why.

The gripping, slow-burn series, written by Chris Chibnall (who cut his teeth on Doctor Who, Torchwood and Law & Order UK), examines what happens to a small, tight-knit community when the murder of a child takes place in its midst.

Rather than just a straight- forward police procedural drama, Broadchurch also focuses on the shattered and bereaved family.

Once the TV appeals have been made, the cameras are turned off and the police go home, what happens behind the closed doors and shuttered windows of the bereft home?

For once, we see how the parents Mark (Andrew Buchan) and Beth (Jodie Whittaker) try to bear the unbearable.

Whittaker, in particular, is wrenchingly effective. Her pale, haunted face speaks of a mother’s pain that will never end, while her sprint along the beach towards the body of her dead son was harrowing.

She is also secretly pregnant — should we assume her husband is the father?

An emotional thriller such as this deserves a theatrical backdrop and, in this, Broadchurch dazzles.

Filmed in and around West Bay in Dorset last year, the stunning Jurassic Coast is shown at its best.

The tourist office is reporting a huge swell of interest, while local businesses advertise their premises ‘as seen in Broadchurch’ as they prepare for a bumper summer.

This is in marked contrast to their onscreen counterparts, who complain they do not want their town to be a ‘byword for murder’.

Chibnall — who insisted none of the actors knew who the killer was during filming — lived in the area for almost ten years and was always aware of its dramatic potential.

In the eight-part series, the beach, sea and cliffs are key elements in the story.

Yet what makes Broadchurch stand out from the usual TV cop dramas is the odd, unsettling atmosphere it creates and the fine acting that propels it along.

Olivia Colman is excellent at acting as a conduit for the strangeness, tensions and complex relationships that lie just under the surface of a small town.

In these neat streets, behind the doors of ordinary houses like hers, Ellie Miller must help unmask a killer who is hiding in plain sight. The question is — who?

Source:dailymail.co.uk – Is Broadchurch star Olivia Colman the new Helen Mirren?