Gathered on the poster of “Scandalously yours”, where it is a question of insulting letters, Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley speak bad words (in the cinema and outside) at our microphone. With great enthusiasm.
In December 2021, they starred in The Lost Daughter by Maggie Gyllenhaal, which both earned them an Oscar nomination but in which they did not opposite each other, since they played the same character at different ages .
Today, Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley come face to face in Scandalously Yours. On a lighter register and with more flowery language, since the feature film returns to a funny true story against a backdrop of insulting letters, in England in the 1920s.
The opportunity to talk insults with two actresses who had a blast: “Thank you for making us say bad words.”, Olivia Colman will tell us at the end of the interview. Shared pleasure.
AlloCiné: The film tells us about a story “more true than we believe”. Did you know her before reading the script, or did you discover her at the same time as the project?
Jessie Buckley : No.
Olivia Colman : No, me neither. We discovered it thanks to the scenario.
Jessie Buckley : And we learned that this had really happened in the 1920s. That these letters were real, that they had caused a scandal at the time to the point of provoking debates in Parliament and making headlines in the press of the country. Two women even went to prison because of this story! It was both shocking and very exciting. I said to myself : “Thank God there were some badly behaved women in the 1920s!” (laughs)
You talk about being poorly brought up: how much of a letdown is it to be able to swear and say so many bad words in a single film?
Jessie Buckley: It’s such a kick!
Olivia Colman: But this is the case for any human being. If you were allowed to say the worst nonsense for a day, you would feel so good at the end.
Jessie Buckley: You are completely relieved afterwards, and you have a good night’s sleep.
If you were allowed to say the worst nonsense for a day, you would feel so good at the end
And it must have been all the more liberating here, in an English feature film, as you both made American films, where things are stricter on this level since two “fucks” are worth being rated R (forbidden unaccompanied under 17s).
Olivia Colman: It’s true, yes. And it’s all the more amusing because the classification system in the United States leaves us perplexed: there, violence is okay. But swear words or a nipple, what a scandal! While in France or Great Britain, everyone is calm on the subject (laughs)
I just saw a movie last night, “Everything But You” with Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell, and it was after hearing two “fucks” in five minutes that I understood that it was rated R in the United States. United. And the same with yours: after two minutes, there was no longer any doubt.
Jessie Buckley: (she bursts out laughing) And after two hours you say to yourself “He will never come out” (laughs)
Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese must be jealous.
Olivia Colman: I hope ! They just have to come and make a film in Europe.
screenshot When Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley have fun with us
Were you able to improvise the swear words you say in the film, or did you have to stay faithful to what was written?
Olivia Colman: It was very specific, very strange, as a way of swearing. What was in Jonny Sweet’s script, and even the actual letters, was funnier than we could have made up. So there wasn’t really any improvisation on that front.
Jessie Buckley: And we didn’t need it, there were so many already (laughs)
Olivia Colman: There was no room to add more.
Jessie Buckley: I even wonder if there are any we left out. We should watch the film again.
What are the swear words you use the most on a daily basis?
Jessie Buckley: “Fuck” !
Olivia Colman: Yes, “fuck” I say it every day. “Shit” also, and “for fuck’s sake”, which reminds me of this video from confinement: a little girl who looks so cute in her striped top, with a barrette in her hair, who plays with flowers when bubbles pass by. And she says: “Bubbles…Come back bubbles. Oh fuck’s sake!” Then she returns to her plants. The fact that she knew the expression and knew when to use it was funny and cute.
Do you know any swear words in French?
Through these big words and these damn little letters, “Scandalously Yours” also speaks about the place of women at the beginning of the 20th century and their fight against patriarchy. Did you perceive it that way, beyond the amusing side of saying insults?
Olivia Colman: Yes, but we watched the film together for the first time yesterday, after having said, throughout interviews, how funny it was to make it. Except we found ourselves holding hands and crying, because we had forgotten the moving parts. Because it’s about women who fight to be seen and noticed, to be able to be free with their minds, their bodies and their choices. It was horrible at the time.
Thank God we have evolved, even if we still have a long way to go. We could clearly start with equal pay between men and women, for example. But it’s fascinating, just like what the film shows: that policewomen couldn’t have children or husbands. Isn’t that crazy?
The film is about women fighting to be seen and noticed, to be free in their minds, bodies and choices.
Jessie Buckley: And a single mother would be stigmatized. This may even still be the case in some places, even though they are superheroes for me. They are incredible. Single fathers too for that matter.
Olivia Colman: But it is true that a woman had to lie about her marital status in order not to be ostracized.
Jessie Buckley: And it would haunt her daughter for the rest of her life.
Comments collected by Maximilien Pierrette in Paris on February 14, 2024