Olivia Colman. “I was a cleaner and a secretary, I look back on this past with tenderness.”

Olivia Colman’s interview earned. Exercise does not appeal to him, and those around him, realizing his reluctance, impose requirements on their part. Also, when the interview time rings, with an intermediate screen, the apprehension sets in, multiplied tenfold by the delays and anticipation of the meeting. But fears fly away when the big smile of the actress, who is happy to defend, finally appears Empire of Light , By Sam Mendes. At the imperious age of 49, the English actress plays a cinema manager who struggles with her schizophrenic disorder and grows closer to a young black colleague in an English seaside town. A strong and complex role, which, indirectly, also causes racism in England in the 1980s.

In the video, Empire of Light By Sam Mendes, trailer

Choosing an actress is not a matter of commitment or politics, but primarily of feelings. Olivia Colman says she doesn’t intellectualize roles, and also apologizes for not always knowing how to talk about it. This is not entirely true. And he compensates with a very British politeness combined with a rare humility. She is one of those actresses without ego trip, realizing what a privilege he is to practice a profession he cherishes solely for the love of the game, without selfishness. Undoubtedly, this is the competence of courses under the sign of patience and perseverance.

The Englishwoman from Dorset started out more than twenty years ago, but the early years were tough, juggling between acting, third roles and odd jobs. 2011 tyrannosaurus, in which she plays a battered wife, offers her a tribute in her home country and allows her to land her first lead role in a detective series two years later. Brode church. He never stopped working (flea bag, Iron woman…), but struggles to identify. We have to wait until 2019 and two sovereign roles to reshuffle the cards. That year she won an Academy Award for Best Actress, a Venice Film Festival Commentary Award, a BAFTA and a Golden Globe for her portrayal of England’s capricious Queen Anne. The favorite. He then takes over from Claire Foy The crown , on Netflix as the iconic Queen Elizabeth II. Khohem took revenge. Projects are flowing. Daughter of Alzheimer’s patient Anthony Hopkins the father by Florian Zeller, who was again nominated for an Oscar last year The lost daughterwe will see him in the Marvel series Secret Invasion and the movie Wonka, opposite Timothée Chalamet. Despite the success, she assures him, life is the same, with a writer husband and three children aged 18, 16 and 8. He always runs away from social events, fame, press. One thing, however, has really changed. no one knows his name anymore.

Miss Figaro. – How to play this fragile woman with many faces inside Empire of Light, Star was a challenge ?
Olivia Colman. – It was a huge, exciting and nerve-wracking challenge. I have never experienced a psychological problem, apart from the torments of adolescence, this latent blues that we all more or less know when we are building. So I could only rely on my empathy and my imagination to play Hilary, and Sam Mendes, who was with me all the way; The woman I play was partly inspired by her own mother, who grew up alone while battling bipolar and schizophrenic disorders on a daily basis. . Sam was my standard and my first source; he described the script with informative references to these diseases or the 1980s, even going so far as to send me images of the types of candy sold in movie theaters at the time.

Today, movies fit in our pockets, but nothing will ever replace the memories that the cinema experience gives.

Olivia Colman

The film depicts a romance between a middle-aged white woman and a young black man. Is it important for you to carry the lines through the characters you play?
I’d like to tell you it is, but to be honest, I don’t choose my roles that way. I have no plan, no method, no political vision. I walk from the heart. I even accepted the role before reading the script, simply because I wanted to work with Sam Mendes. That said, of course, I’m not interested in scripts frozen in archaic performances. And there are. Inequalities persist if statistics are to be believed. even though they represent 50% of the population of this planet, women are still underrepresented in our fiction, both in leading and supporting roles.

In the film, the cinema is an escape, a cocoon. What power has he had in your life?
Here, Sam Mendes tells what he experienced. cinema was an escape from the troubled daily life with his mother. Me, I had the opportunity to grow up in a loving family. we walked out into the dark and cold to go huddle in the warm cage of the movie theater. I loved hearing my loved ones laugh and cry on the same stages, feeling connected to society… It’s an incomparable feeling, even when it’s shared with strangers. Today, movies fit in our pockets, but nothing will ever replace the memories that the cinema experience gives. Besides, for my children, going to the cinema as a family is a feast.

Which films left an indelible mark on you?
I discovered French cinema in my youth, and I have very strong memories Hovhannes Floretti and: Sources Manon, whose story and actors marked me. As a drama student I was overwhelmed too Breaking the waves, to the point that I feel unable to see him again today. I wanted to be Emily Watson, the actress in the movie.

It was this love of cinema that got you into this business.
No way. I didn’t even know I could afford to dream of being an actress until I was 16 in a high school play. I wasn’t a good student and I finally found something that opened up to me and that I wasn’t too bad at.

Being on stage, on the boards, do you miss it?
Not at this time. It is difficult, demanding. Maybe I’ll be more ready when my kids leave the nest. For now, I don’t want to sacrifice the time I spend with them.

“Cinema is a window to the world”

Do you think cinema can change the way of thinking?
Deeply. When I found out last step in which Susan Sarandon plays a sister who accompanies a prisoner on death row, I first thought about the death penalty, which has not been practiced in Britain since the late 1960s. It opened my eyes to what could be. it happens in other western countries with whom we think we share so much. Cinema is a window on the world that often knocks down the blinders and makes it possible to understand that you can’t judge what you don’t know. He contributed greatly to my thinking.

Have you learned from every role you’ve taken on?
before turning around Tyrannosaurus, a movie about spousal abuse, I accidentally made deep judgments about battered women. I said. “Why are they staying with this guy? It doesn’t make any sense.” I will never say that again. Unless confronted directly, no one can understand the level of terror and threat hanging over these victims.

“No one is going to give you the life you want. It’s up to you to build it.” Do you believe this copy?Empire of Light ?
Sometimes you need to be pushed into a corner. When I started, no one fought for me, and looking back, I have no regrets. My parents wanted me to be happy and supported me, but they were also afraid that I would break my teeth because of this dream of acting. I struggled for quite a few years. Instead of discouraging me, it increased my desire tenfold, strengthened my tenacity. I was a cleaner and a secretary to fill the fridge, and by the way, I was terribly useless, but I look back fondly on this past. I know today that I am doing this work for the right reasons. For the love of the game I didn’t give up and got there.

Do you still have the feeling that you have to fight today?
I’m at a good point in my career, but I’m not representative of actresses over 50 or under. I’m one of the few actresses who work, and I don’t live in ignorance of what many of my colleagues go through who are considered “outdated” or uninteresting. Everything is changing, but let’s not be complacent. this environment is no more exemplary than others.

empire of light By Sam Mendes. Released on the 1st^eh march