With an Oscar and a host of BAFTAs to her name, Olivia Colman has already achieved monumental success – as she turns 50 this week we celebrate the career of one of our most beloved British stars
WORDS: RHONA MERCER PHOTOS: REX/SHUTTERSTOCK, PA, GETTY
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In a world of filters and fillers, stylists and Instaperfection, it’s more than a little unusual to hear an Oscar-winning movie star talking honestly about her looks. But then pretty much everything about Olivia Colman is refreshing. “I feel fortunate that I’m not a beauty. I feel it is harder for girls who are like that. There are fewer parts,” she said.
And this week, as the star turns 50, she certainly won’t worry that offers of the challenging acting roles she’s so famous for will dry up. This is one national treasure who is fast reaching iconic status.
Although claiming she’s “not a pin-up”, Olivia is also quick to clarify how she feels about herself. “I’m not suggesting I feel unconfident. I am beautiful to my husband. I am beautiful to my friends. I feel sexy and all those things with the people I love.”
Ever since she hit our screens back in 2003 when she played the iconic Sophie in the cult comedy Peep Show alongside her Cambridge University pals Robert Webb and David Mitchell, we’ve been in awe of her ability to make us laugh and cry in equal measure.
The Norfolk-born star, whose real name is actually Sarah (she named herself after her uni friend Olivia as there was already a Sarah Colman registered with the Actor’s Equity Association), is a wonderful combination of someone who is hugely talented but also doesn’t take herself too seriously.
As anyone watching her hilarious appearances on The Graham Norton Show will know, she’s prone to self-deprecation, saying, “I am just an actor – all I do is I memorise someone else’s words and tart around.”
But underneath it all, she also admits that she had high hopes for her career from the start. Referring to the menial jobs she had before her big break, she said, “I was always pretty ambitious, although it probably helps that I can’t do anything else – apart from cleaning lavatories.”
Although she’d had small parts in shows such as People Like Us and The Office, it was her role in Peep Show that got Olivia noticed, and after that she snapped up parts in Simon Pegg’s film Hot Fuzz, the ITV favourite Midsomer Murders and Channel 4’s cult drama, Skins.
She went on to win BAFTAs for her roles in ITV’s Broadchurch, which she starred in w
