Oscars 2019: Olivia Colman crowned with Oscar glory for 'The Favourite'
Olivia Colman has said she will be taking her Oscar statuette to bed with her.
The British star of The Favourite won Best Actress on Sunday night, ahead of Glenn Close for The Wife and Lady Gaga for A Star Is Born.
Speaking backstage after her win, Colman was asked where she will be putting her prize.
She told the Press Association: “In bed with me, between me and my husband.” Asked how much of her speech was prepared, she replied “none of it”, adding that winning is “not an every day occurrence”.
In her amazing speech she said: “It’s genuinely quite stressful. This is hilarious. I got an Oscar!
“OK, I have to thank lots of people. If, by the way, I forget anybody I’m going to find you later and I’m going to give you all a massive snog and I’m really sorry if I might forget now.
“But Yorgos, my best director and the best film, and with Emma and Rachel, the two loveliest women in the world to fall in love with, and to go to work with every day, I mean, you can imagine, it wasn’t a hardship.
“And to be in this category with these extraordinary women, and Glenn Close… you’ve been my idol for so long and this is not how I wanted it to be and I think you’re amazing and I love you very much.”
Colman thanked her agents Lindy King, Olivia Homan and Hildy Gottlieb and her publicist Bryna Rifkin.
She said: “I love you all. Thank you, Lindy King, my agent who took me on over 20 years ago, thank you so much. And Olive and Hildy and Bryna, who made me do things that I said no to, but she was right.
“My mum and my dad… well, you know. And my kids who are at home and watching, look!
“Well, if you’re not, then, well done, but I sort of hope you are. This is not going to happen again.
“And any little girl who is practising their speech on the telly, you never know. I used to work as a cleaner and I loved that job, I did spend quite a lot of my time imagining this.”
She then said that she was being asked to “please wrap up”, and blew a raspberry as the audience laughed.
Colman continued, thanking husband Ed Sinclair: “Thank you, and my husband Ed, my best friend, I love you so much; 25 years, you’ve been my best supporter, he’s going to cry!
“I’m not. Thank you so much, Fox, everybody, the cast, the crew, Frances, Sam, thank you.
“Argh, thank you so much… Lady Gaga!”
Colman said she has “no idea” how she is feeling following the win.
She added: “Next year I’ll be able to put it into words but I don’t know what to do with myself at the moment.”
Colman confirmed her children – aged 13, 11 and three – were watching from her agent’s house.
Prior to landing the best actress Academy Award for her role as Queen Anne in The Favourite, she had a successful career on the small screen in Green Wing, That Mitchell And Webb Look, and Twenty Twelve, and in British films including Hot Fuzz and Tyrannosaur before she played the role of Carol Thatcher opposite Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady.
She also found early fame as Sophie, the girlfriend of David Mitchell’s neurotic Mark, in the British comedy Peep Show.
It was her part as the hotel manager in 2015’s The Lobster that paired her up with Greek film-maker Yorgos Lanthimos, who would go on to direct her to her Oscar win.
The Lobster, which also starred Colin Farrell, and Colman’s The Favourite co-star Rachel Weisz, was set in a surreal dystopian future, where single people are obliged to find a romantic partner within 45 days or are turned into animals.
It was a critical hit and collected a best original screenplay nomination at the Oscars.
Colman, 45, followed up the film’s success with a star turn in the BBC drama The Night Manager opposite Tom Hiddleston and Hugh Laurie, for which she won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Emmy, and in Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s black comedy Fleabag.
It was her role in the ITV crime series Broadchurch that made her a household name in the UK, playing DS Ellie Miller, but it is her turn in The Favourite that has made her a Hollywood star.
Colman’s portrayal of the petulant, greedy and grieving queen has won her rave reviews and scored her a Golden Globe and a BAFTA.
Her most anticipated role is yet to come, when she steps into the shoes of Queen Elizabeth II in the third series of The Crown as the lavish Netflix drama moves into the 1970s.
She will take over the part from Claire Foy and has said how difficult she has found it.
Comparing the two Queens she plays, she told the Press Association: “It could not be more different.
“I find the harder is Queen Elizabeth because everyone knows what she looks like, everyone knows what she sounds like, everyone has an opinion on whether the casting is right.
“And I am loving the job, I am loving trying to play her, but I find her harder.”
Reporting by PA.
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