Olivia Colman talks ‘Empire of Light,’ ditching indies for Marvel: ‘I feel slightly unfaithful’
NEW YORK — Like many of us, Olivia Colman has been personally victimized by Disney animated movies.
One of the actress’ earliest theater memories was seeing a rerelease of the 1942 tearjerker “Bambi” with her grandmother, who “had to take me out of the film because I was screaming,” Colman recalls. She had a similarly distressing experience when she became a mom and brought her kids to see 2010’s “Toy Story 3,” which finds Woody and friends facing certain death in a fiery incinerator.
“Our eldest, who was then tiny, stood up and went ‘Noooo!’ ” Colman says. “I was like, ‘It’s OK; it’ll be OK!’ And he was like, ‘How do you know?!’ It was awful. I felt like we really traumatized him.”
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Cinema’s ability to provoke and stir us is just one of the subjects explored in Colman’s new drama “Empire of Light” (now in select theaters, nationwide Dec. 23). In the film, she plays a lonely theater manager named Hilary who comes out of her shell after falling in love with a younger Black employee named Stephen (Micheal Ward). Set in 1980s England, the movie takes on a myriad of tough social issues, as Stephen encounters racism from white nationalists and Hilary resists treatment for unspecified but debilitating mental health issues.
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Colman, 48, says Hilary is unlike anyone she’s ever played before, including roles that earned her three Oscar nominations (and one win) for her stunning turns in “The Favourite” (2018), “The Father” (2020) and last year’s “The Lost Daughter.”
“I love that feeling of being a bit scared,” Colman says. “When I read it, there was quite a pressure to not let down Sam and to portray someone with those issues honestly. But my hands were held all the way through it by Sam and – it sounds weird to say this – I really enjoyed it. Even the big breakdown scenes were cathartic, because in my everyday life, I’m a very happy person. I don’t really cry, so it’s great to be able to do that and do it honestly.”
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Although Colman has no qualms about laying bare her emotions, filming intimate scenes with Ward was a slightly different story.
“I did say (to Mendes), ‘Oh, do we have to have sex scenes? I’m older than Micheal’s mum,'” Colman says. “I’m terribly English about it. It just makes me feel embarrassed. I try to avoid sex scenes at all costs.” But having an intimacy coordinator on set “was a total game changer for me. She took away the awkwardness and turned it into a dance routine.”
Colman continues to be in high demand, with roles in the upcoming “Wonka” prequel film opposite Timothée Chalamet and comedy “Wicked Little Letters” with her “Lost Daughter” co-star Jessie Buckley. Next up is “Joyride” (in theaters and on demand Dec. 23), in which she plays a reluctant new mom who takes an unexpected road trip across Ireland with a troubled teen (Charlie Reid).
“I loved the story,” Colman says. “When I read the script, I thought it was going to be much darker than it ended up being. But also, Ireland in the summer, why would you ever want to go anywhere else? The sea is clear and blue, it’s so green and everyone is lovely.”
She also plays a special agent in next year’s “Secret Invasion,” a new Marvel series on Disney+.
“I can’t give you spoilers because I can’t remember!” Colman quips. “I feel slightly unfaithful to the smaller films, but I am a Marvel fan. After every Marvel film (was released), I’d go to my agent, like, ‘Can I be a superhero?’ So eventually I got to do a tiny bit in a Marvel (show) and I was thrilled. From an actor’s point of view, to play and do all sorts of things is the dream. And I got to meet Samuel L. Jackson – the other Sam that I love – and Don Cheadle.
“I know that there’s a fight for spaces in cinema and I understand all that. But I had a ball doing it.”