Olivia Colman had some trepidation about undertaking sex scenes in her new movie Empire of Light, so a comment from her younger co-star bringing up his mum during one of these moments understandably caught her off-guard.
Directed by Sam Mendes, the movie takes place in an English coastal cinema during the 1980s and follows a love story between cinema manager Hilary (Colman) and her employee Stephen (Micheal Ward).
But when it came to filming some of their more intimate moments, Micheal didn’t quite know how to make small talk.
Speaking on The Graham Norton Show, which airs on Saturday, the pair were asked about their age difference and whether they were aware of it on screen.
‘There was one particular moment when I was astride Micheal in a compromising and slightly embarrassing situation and he said, “It’s my mum’s birthday today”,’ Olivia recalled.
‘When he said she was 43, I was like, “Okay, stop talking!”.’
Olivia is 48, while her Micheal is 25.
However despite his slight gaffe, Micheal did add that working with Olivia was ‘an amazing experience’.
‘It was incredible just to share the same space. I learnt so much about being a real person – everyone had a real sense of humanity.
‘If Olivia had been rude I might have thought that’s how I need to be to reach a certain level of success but the fact she is so lovely showed me I can be a good person and still be successful.’
While the role was written for Olivia after Sam saw her playing Queen Elizabeth II in the third and fourth seasons of The Crown, the Oscar winner said that she initially ‘begged’ him to cut any of the sex scenes.
However when intimacy co-ordinator Ita O’Brien, who Olivia actually went to drama school with, was brought on board, she reconsidered.
‘I would request her on every job, forever,’ Olivia told Newsweek of working with her old classmate.
‘I couldn’t have done it without her because she understood me completely and turned it into a dance routine.’
The film, which comes out next month, has been described as ‘a nostalgic celebration of the transporting joys and communal power of cinema, set against a backdrop of social unrest’, and one that is a serious contender for the Oscars.
The Graham Norton Show airs on Saturday at 10.55pm on BBC One. Empire of Light is released in cinemas on January 13.
