12 steps to becoming a national treasure
As Olivia Colman is crowned Best Actress at the Baftas, and gives another humble speech, Guy Kelly charts her path to winning our affections
Of all Olivia Colman’s achievements in recent years, it was perhaps her most impressive: on Sunday night, she managed to single-handedly save the Baftas. “We’re gonna get so p----- later…” she said, during an acceptance speech that was so bumbling, so self-deprecating and amusingly “British” that for the briefest of moments, those present in the Royal Albert Hall and watching at home must have forgotten it was the first time they had laughed all evening.
It was another Best Actress victory for Colman’s compelling portrayal of Queen Anne in The Favourite and another stride on her way to charming the world. The next morning, if you searched Twitter for “Olivia Colman is a national treasure” you were met with not dozens, but hundreds of people posting those very words. But are they right? Is Colman up there with the Denches, Mirrens and Maggies? Let us chart her progress, via the 12 steps to “national treasure” status…
1. A long apprenticeship
At 45, Colman may now be the most in-demand actress in the world, but no one could argue that it has come easily. Kate Winslet was 20 when she filmed Titanic; at the same age, Colman was doing teacher training. She was born in Norwich in 1974, went to Cambridge and accidentally applied to the Footlights. There, she met David Mitchell and Robert Webb, with whom she starred in the Channel 4 series Peep Show for 12 years. And it was in TV and radio comedy where Colman toiled for two decades, before serious roles found her. The Iron Lady, The Night Manager and Broadchurch were among those, and they all paved the way to Hollywood. Pleasingly, though, she has kept up the voice role of Marion, the self-propelled steam shovel, in Thomas and Friends.
2. Keep it real
It would be safe to say that the role of Queen Anne – with her predilection for eating cakes by the handful, gout and many, many chins – was not a glamorous role for Colman. But what does she care? Anybody who’s seen Broadchurch knows she’s more than happy to look tired, grumpy and dishevelled. In fact, with the exception of a few eccentric period roles, she has played entirely normal, relatable women. We all know a put-upon Sophie from Peep Show. Any receptionist could see themselves in Sally from Twenty Twelve. Colman’s characters are all around us.
3. Get ad-fab
Colman’s first iconic screen role was as Bev, one half of “Bev and Kev”, from an AA advertising campaign in 2002, in which a couple kept repeating one another’s names through their car windows. Recently she admitted it was “the bane of my life” – but it wasn’t to be her last ad. In 2015, she became a supporter of Unicef, fronting fundraising campaigns for the charity (a necessary notch on the belt of any national treasure). While last year, British Airways passengers will have seen her in the airline’s latest in-flight safety video, alongside Sir Michael Caine. If that’s not flying the flag for Britain, what is?
4. Have no enemies
A fun game to play when you’re bored is, “Can you find an instance of anybody ever saying anything critical about Olivia Colman?” From David Tennant and Rachel Weisz to Jodie Whittaker, everybody she has ever worked with has been desperate to splash praise her way. Emma Stone, her co-star in The Favourite, says she’s “in love with her”. Meryl Streep, who was Maggie to Colman’s Carol Thatcher in The Iron Lady, called her “divinely gifted”. It would be annoying if it weren’t so believable.
5. Royal appointments
Dench, Thompson, Mirren, Smith. What connects them all? Other than their Damehoods, they have all played at least one Queen of England. So has Colman, of course, with Queen Anne in The Favourite, and the Queen Mother in Hyde Park on Hudson. Later this year, she goes one further by playing Queen Elizabeth II in the third series of The Crown. There may be some sort of Freudian explanation for it (answers to the Letters page, please), but we tend to gravitate towards actresses who have played our monarch.
6. Be extraordinarily ordinary
Colman has referred to herself as “more a jeans-with-something-spilton-it person” than the typical Hollywood star, and that is fundamental to her charm. She has previously admitted to urging her husband, Ed Sinclair (they met in the Footlights and have three children) to steal “two squares of loo roll” from Buckingham Palace when attending a function there. She couldn’t “give a f---” if the swearing in The Favourite offends anyone. And she has lived in south London for years – some of her neighbours didn’t even know she was an actress. Until now, presumably.
7. Cross the pond
Before The Favourite, Colman was fairly unknown across the Atlantic. Then she started her awards campaign, and suddenly they have awoken. It’s easy to see why, to Americans, Colman is as English as Mary Poppins drowning in a mug of Earl Grey. “Cor blimey!” she said, sounding like a cartoon Brit, accepting her Golden Globe in Los Angeles last month. It delighted the Hollywood press. Some have wondered if it’s all part of a charm offensive – if it is, it’s a ruddy good one.
8. Charm them with the speeches
On the trajectory towards national treasure status, this is where Colman currently rests. The acceptance speech is a chance for an actor to show their personality – and she’s the master. At the Baftas, she humbly paid tribute to her co-stars, Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone, saying of her trophy: “It’s got my name on it, but we can scratch some other names on.” Then, rifling through her cue cards: “Oh God, what else was I meant to say? Done that bit, done that bit…”
9. Go underground
Colman recently said fame was “very stupidly nothing I expected to happen, I just wanted to work”. Might she now do a Daniel Day-lewis and disappear between roles, or move to the country, like Julie Walters? She’s already difficult to pin down for interview, and tends to leg it down red carpets. “As long as I know I can keep my head down, stay at home, it’s not so bad,” she has said.
10. Win an Oscar
Despite all the excitement, Colman is not actually the favourite to win Best Actress at the Oscars next month (all the traditional industry bellwethers suggest Glenn Close will prevail), but will that stop her momentum as a national treasure in-waiting? Will it ever. If she wins, her Hollywood status is set. If she loses, she returns as the people’s champion. It’s win-win.
11. Arise Dame…
Unless Colman portrays Queen Elizabeth II as a kind of monster in The Crown, she will surely be honoured for her services to drama. Though, it might not be an essential step. David Hockney, Vanessa Redgrave, Alan Bennett and David Bowie are all proof that it is possible to turn down a title and enjoy greatness, but it has a ring to it: Dame Olivia. Let’s hope the Queen doesn’t have Netflix.
12. As you like it
Last year, Dame Judi Dench made a prime-time BBC One documentary that was solely about the fact she likes trees. Dame Maggie Smith, having admitted she can’t bring herself to watch a second of Downton Abbey and repeatedly trashing the idea of a film version, is now shooting scenes for – you guessed it – Downton Abbey the film. As for Dame Helen Mirren, well, since winning her Oscar in 2006, she has happily made some of the worst films of the 21st century. But is she still a national treasure? Of course. That’s what NT status gets you: the ability to do whatever you like.