‘The Dame Judi Dench of her generation’
Only recently, Olivia Colman confessed that she believed she didn’t always land the best parts because she wasn’t ‘the archetypal looker’. But last Sunday one of our finest, albeit often unsung, actresses received the plaudits she has so long deserved. Leaving the Baftas clutching two awards, Colman is finally a leading lady.
Her fabulous range was reflected in her two awards. Not only did she win the Best Supporting Actress gong for her role in harrowing BBC One drama Accused, in which she played a mother who stands up to a violent gang, she also collected the award for Best Female Performance in a Comedy, for Olympics satire Twenty Twelve.
The awards follow a string of celebrated roles. Her turn as a detective alongside David Tennant in whodunnit Broadchurch attracted huge audiences for ITV, while she was applauded by the critics for her moving performance alongside Peter Mullan in 2011 film, Tyrannosaur. She also played Carol Thatcher in the Thatcher biopic, The Iron Lady.
Born in Norfolk to a nurse mother and chartered surveyor father, Olivia Colman started training as a primary-school teacher before turning to acting, studying at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. Now the mother of two sons – who were with her parents during the awards – she remains delightfully down-to-earth. In fact, when Colman heard she had won, she responded with some rather colourful language – although she apologised immediately, of course.
‘If my kids are watching, it looked like I said a bad word. But I didn’t; I said “fudge”,’ she joked.
So what next for the woman who said in a recent interview that she’s never ‘cast as the love interest… I’m just not seen as that girl’?
Well, clearly her co-stars have no reservations about her prodigious talents. Hugh Bonneville, who starred alongside her in Twenty Twelve, said she was the ‘Dame Judi Dench of our generation’, while Broadchurch co-star David Tennant described her as ‘irritatingly perfect’.
Colman herself, however, remains modest as usual.
‘Hollywood hasn’t called, unless they have got a digit wrong,’ she said. ‘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?’
And if she does move across the Atlantic, surely it’s only a matter of time before she’s lining up an Oscar beside her Baftas.
Her fabulous range was reflected in her two awards. Not only did she win the Best Supporting Actress gong for her role in harrowing BBC One drama Accused, in which she played a mother who stands up to a violent gang, she also collected the award for Best Female Performance in a Comedy, for Olympics satire Twenty Twelve.
The awards follow a string of celebrated roles. Her turn as a detective alongside David Tennant in whodunnit Broadchurch attracted huge audiences for ITV, while she was applauded by the critics for her moving performance alongside Peter Mullan in 2011 film, Tyrannosaur. She also played Carol Thatcher in the Thatcher biopic, The Iron Lady.
Born in Norfolk to a nurse mother and chartered surveyor father, Olivia Colman started training as a primary-school teacher before turning to acting, studying at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. Now the mother of two sons – who were with her parents during the awards – she remains delightfully down-to-earth. In fact, when Colman heard she had won, she responded with some rather colourful language – although she apologised immediately, of course.
‘If my kids are watching, it looked like I said a bad word. But I didn’t; I said “fudge”,’ she joked.
So what next for the woman who said in a recent interview that she’s never ‘cast as the love interest… I’m just not seen as that girl’?
Well, clearly her co-stars have no reservations about her prodigious talents. Hugh Bonneville, who starred alongside her in Twenty Twelve, said she was the ‘Dame Judi Dench of our generation’, while Broadchurch co-star David Tennant described her as ‘irritatingly perfect’.
Colman herself, however, remains modest as usual.
‘Hollywood hasn’t called, unless they have got a digit wrong,’ she said. ‘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?’
And if she does move across the Atlantic, surely it’s only a matter of time before she’s lining up an Oscar beside her Baftas.
OLIVIA COLMAN: a life in brief
- Born Sarah Caroline Olivia Colman on 30 January 1974, in Norfolk.
- Studies at Cambridge University with aspirations of becoming a teacher, but changes course after joining the Cambridge Footlights Dramatic Club, where she meets husband-to-be Ed Sinclair, and future Peep Show co-stars David Mitchell and Robert Webb.
- Enrols at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.
- In 2011, wins a Sundance Film Festival World Cinema Special Jury Prize for Breakout Performances, for her role in the film Tyrannosaur.
- The same year, she plays Carol Thatcher to Meryl Streep’s Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady. In her Bafta acceptance speech, Streep singles out Colman, describing her as ‘divinely gifted’.
- At the 2013 Baftas, Colman wins Best Supporting Actress for her role in Accused (Mo’s Story), and Best Female Performance in a Comedy for Olympic satire Twenty Twelve.
- Lives in London with her husband and their two sons.