hit for Olivia Colman, who won the statuette for best actress in a leading role for her interpretation of queen Anne Stuart in Favorite the filmmaker’s Greek Yórgos Lánthimos. The actress had already picked up a Golden Globe (best actress in a film musical or comedy) at the beginning of the year and a cup Volpi for best actress at the Venice film Festival in September.

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In Favorite , the actress, who has just celebrated his 45 years, burst onto the screen alongside Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone. It embodies the last sovereign of the House of Stuart, a monarch in both severe, capricious and vulnerable. A partition mid-way between comedy and tragedy, to the image of his career.

Olivia Colman and Rachel Weisz in «The Favorite». Atsushi Nishijima – Fox Searchlight

After studying at the prestigious university of Cambridge and a passage in the «Old Vic», theatre royal Bristol, the actress is revealed on the small screen in 2003 in the sitcom Peep Show . In parallel to its role as Sophie Chapman in this gem of british television, it made several appearances in comedies broadcast by the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 in the early 2000s ( The Office , Black Books , People Like Us ), and not always shared in France. The comic roles are linked: first, in the «mockumentary» Confetti , and then in the comedy crazy to Edgar Wright, Hot Fuzz .

When her agent suggests a change of register, as it is likely to be offered the same kind of characters up to the end of her career, she made the big leap into the drama. In 2011, she portrayed a battered woman in Tyrannosaur , a drama from Paddy Considine – his performance is especially rewarded at the British Independent Film Awards and Sundance. «I’ve always wanted to play this kind of dramatic roles and I knew that nobody would believe them capable of», explained to the New York Times recently.

«I’m not glamorous,»

Olivia Colman is an actress who is generous. Funny and touching, she played the daughter of Margaret Thatcher in The iron Lady , detective Ellie Miller in the excellent series, Broadchurch , the agent information Angela Burr, pregnant until the coup, in the adaptation of John Le Carré’s The Night Manager , or even the hilarious mother-in-law poison ivy in Fleabag . The disconcerting ease with which she juggles between tragic and comic fascinates his colleagues. «She laughed more warmly than anyone else, but is also able to cry as a person,» says David Tennant, his fellow in Broadchurch our brother Guardian . «She has that something that makes that one identifies easily with her», adds Nina Gold, the casting director who chose her to replace Claire Foy in the shoes of queen Elizabeth II to the third season of The Crown .

In «Weekend royal», Olivia Colman embodies the queen Elizabeth. Focus Features

In 2012, Olivia Colman had already crept into the skin of a crowned head, that of the wife of George VI and mother of Elizabeth II Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon in the film Week-end royal . With Favorite , for which it has taken fifteen kilos, the actress confirms that the tiara suits him perfectly. «I prefer this kind of roles, because I don’t have to be what I’m not, and I’m decidedly not glamorous, she said recently in the New York Times . To play Anne, I was not supposed to be elegant, and this was liberating».

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For Yórgos Lánthimos, with whom she has worked on The Lobster , it is impossible to turn Favorite without Colman. «I don’t think I would have made the movie without it,» explained Lánthimos to the u.s. daily. It is a difficult role, really complex. It requires great qualities in an actor, including the ability to toggle between different states of the soul in a short time. It is something that is very instinctive.»