TEN QUESTIONS WITH
JESSIE BUCKLEY & OLIVIA COLMAN
The Wicked Little Letters co-stars on swearing, sweaty auditions and swanky awards parties
■ Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley worked together on the Netflix film The Lost Daughter, in which they played the same character at different ages and for which they were both Oscar-nominated. Now they team up again as warring neighbours in Wicked Little Letters, a comedy about a scandal that shocked 1920s England.
When did you decide you wanted to be an actor?
JESSIE BUCKLEY The first time I realised you could “do” acting was when I saw a local am-dram production of Jesus Christ Superstar. When Jesus was hung on the cross, I was so sure I had seen someone die; I was inconsolable. My mum, bless her, asked if I could go around back to see no one had died, and that it was just Mick Sullivan from up the road acting. I remember going backstage and it was magical! OLIVIA COLMAN I did a play at school and that was the first time I’d ever been really good at anything. I was genuinely the worst student my school ever had – and suddenly, people were clapping! I loved it! But I didn’t know you could be an actor; I thought you had to come from a [certain] place to do it and I didn’t come from a creative family.
LISTEN TO OLIVIA & JESSIE FROM 13 FEB
You both swapped your home towns for London. What was it like arriving in the big smoke from Norwich and Killarney?
OC London is a lot easier once you’ve been paid a bit! The first years were really hard. I was going round sleeping on people’s sofas, trying to find money for the bus to go and get a job. But you find your tribe and then it’s a magical place. JB I moved when I was 17. I got paid for my first job and I thought I was rich. I was doing a show in London Bridge; by the end of the first week I’d run out of money. I was too embarrassed to tell any of the cast so I’d walk from Hammersmith, where I was staying, to London Bridge every night.
How do you look back on times that haven’t gone to plan?
OC I don’t regret the saddest parts of my life because you learn from them. My first year out of drama school, I went for 100 auditions and didn’t get one. I thought my agent was going to dump me. After one audition I didn’t get, I went to see my mum and she said, “Oh well, never mind.” And I went, “I just want a bit of sympathy and a cuddle then I’ll move on!” And you do! It’s like when you watch X Factor and the contestant goes, “This is my big chance!” It’s not! It’s one audition. If you’ve chosen this career, you’ll do them throughout your life, and you’ll lose most of them.
Any audition horror stories? JB I auditioned for Cats the mo
