The Oscar-winner portrays a movie-theater employee with mental health issues in director Sam Mendes' ’80s-set drama.
Colman agreed to appear in the movie before reading the script.
“Then [I] went, what if it’s shit?
Olivia Colman in ‘Empire of Light’.Parisa Taghizadeh/Searchlight Pictures
It was one of those films that was sort of a gut feeling.
SAM MENDES:It’s not even a period piece, it’s adistantperiod piece.
If we were now in the ’80s, this movie would be taking place in the late ’30s.
Micheal Ward and Olivia Colman in ‘Empire of Light’.Searchlight Pictures
Yeah, it’s 41 years ago.
OLIVA COLMAN:No!
When I was writing about the film I thought: historical drama?
Olivia Colman and Sam Mendes on the set of ‘Empire of Light’.Parisa Taghizadeh/Searchlight Pictures/Everett
There’s no corsets in the movie, but Olivia Colman does wear Spanx at one point.
COLMAN:Yeah, no one sees that.
[Laughs]
Olivia, tell us a little more about your character.
‘Empire of Light’.Searchlight Pictures
COLMAN:Well, I could say the same of him as well.
We got on very well, and Sam is the best leader of people.
Sam, you wrote the screenplay and, as Olivia said, it’s quite personal to you.
What prompted you to tackle this?
All those things went directly into the script.
Olivia, there are some very intense scenes involving your character.
What was it like to shoot those sequences?
COLMAN:No, I’m not that sort of actor.
it’s gone for me.
I don’t think I could cope with taking stuff home.
I don’t know how people do that.
Sam, you have this remarkable supporting cast: Colin Firth, Toby Jones, and so on.
Could you talk about assembling them and what they were like to work with?
You didn’t know that?
MENDES:How bizarre.
The Specials, Madness…
MENDES:Did you have a suit?
MENDES:Well, I can’t fit into mine either.
I could fit my entire suit on my right thigh.
Could you explain what 2-tone is, for the benefit of those unfamiliar with it?
It has that energy of punk but it’s also great dance music.
It was called 2-tone for reasons.
1 in the charts music, about things like inner cities, unemployment, youth pregnancy, etcetera.
It was an incredible time in music.
They were incredible bands.
Madness was probably the one that survived the longest.
I miss that time and I wanted to venture to give it a bit of a shop window.
And Clark is now doing a 2-tone dance, ladies and gentlemen.
MENDES:No, that’s about as well as I would do it!
Empire of Lighthits theaters Dec. 9.
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