Olivia Colman: “I’ve always described myself to my husband as a gay man.” 🙄

[NaysayerOrMeanie]

Olivia Colman is currently on the press tour for her new film Jimpa and has come out with some absolute corkers in an interview with them "magazine" including:

"Throughout my whole life, I’ve had arguments with people where I've always felt sort of nonbinary. Don’t make that a big sort of title! But I’ve never felt massively feminine in my being female. I’ve always described myself to my husband as a gay man. And he goes, “Yeah, I get that.”"

Which I can only assume means he likes it when she pegs him.

And a dig at some undefined group of naysayers and haters and meanies:

"Most of the actors were from, particularly in the Dutch side of things, from the queer community there; I’ve never been part of a more welcoming group of people. For all those naysayers or haters or meanies, if [only] they could spend the time with the most welcoming, kind bunch of people. I kind of want everyone to just come and say hi and actually feel total love."

Jimpa stars Olivia Colman as Hannah, mother to the non-binary Frances (played by they/them, non-binary, queer, transgender daughter of the film's director, Aud Mason-Hyde) who go to Amsterdam to visit Hannah's gay HIV positive father (John Lithgow, currently simultaneously scorned by the queers for daring to be in the new Harry Potter series, any by the meanies for talking shit about JKR). I'm sure it will be a hoot.

Congratulations Olivia on your brave coming out as a queer, non-binary, gay man, spicy-straight woman. You're so late to the party all the cool kids will find your identity embarrassing now.

IKWYM but I felt that was demonstrating the character ageing and having ever heavier responsibilities.

She was my least favourite of the 3 queens, but still good I thought.

I also hated her in The Crown - Claire set that bar so high and she was nowhere near it.

But I loved her in Fleabag, Broadchurch, The Favourite. I think she's versatile though there is a certain OC quality about everything she does (a bit like Emma Thompson in that regard).

I thought she was great in The Night Manager. I loved the book, but I'd caveat that by saying (i) Le Carre was not very good at writing women - the way he wrote Jed was much more focused on her desirability to men than giving her a personality, and (ii) the male version of Burr was a slightly identikit character, not badly written but nothing he hadn't done a dozen times before. So making Burr a woman added an extra dimension to the story, and OC did it brilliantly.

If I was feeling extremely generous, I might wonder if she was doing this as some reverse psychology to protect her children from indoctrination.

I think some have jokingly suggested it in the past - when your mum identifies as ‘queer non binary’, no self respecting kid would touch ‘identities’ with a barge pole.

Sadly I’m not sure she’s that bright.

Yes, I would concur absolutely! I think she was wildly miscast as QEII.

Yes, I agree.

Some actors can speak/write well, have an interesting perspective. But I agree that wanting lots of non-acting opinions by default is unhelpful- and leads to this kind if nonsense.

Exactly! I think she is very good but sometimes overcast. I don't think she was ideal for The Crown, nor The Lost Daughter.

What's most embarrassing is that she's probably only saying it as PR for the film. It's so predictable and tedious.

FFS Olivia Colman there isn’t a specified set of characteristics that make someone female (other than the blindingly obvious biological ones). And exactly the same applies to men. What about you makes you say you’re more like a gay man than a woman? What characteristics do you have that can’t possibly be attributed to a woman? Way to reinforce damaging stereotypes.

You aren’t so so special and different. I look traditionally feminine but many of my personality traits are those often attributed to men. I’m still a fucking woman. My husband is the definitely the softer, more nurturing one. Can men not be soft and nurturing? Is more like a gay woman?

People have spent decades fighting these stereotypes and it feels so regressive that women and men are being put back in these boxes.

I think it's partly because publicity for football etc tends to focus specifically on the team/sport. Whereas actors are personalised in a more individual way to try & draw people to the film.

Someone like David Beckham is unusual in football as he deliberately built himself up as a celebrity aside from football & after retirement.

I do like interviews with some actors: Eileen Atkins for one. But some, like Colman, are extremely annoying & should be interviewed as little as possible!

Doesn't she just? God forbid that a woman - a mere woman - could possess any of the nebulous qualities she has that she attributes to being a gay man. No way! She is way more speshul and quote-worthy than that.

Yaaaaawwwwwnnnn.

Jeez…. The virtual signalling is so loud I need ear defenders !!!

tone deaf and just plain ridiculous…..it’s as if she truly believes that everyone in the lgbtq+ community are rainbow farting unicorns ….which we know is sooooo far from the truth.

That's horrible. 🫂 I understand if you'd rather not say, but was this in UK? I thought most areas were accepting towards gay people now, or at least not likely to be violent. Maybe I'm naive....

A lot of actors have a preferred type, but I think I agree with you about Colman. Maybe with theatre being less of a thing, this has increased, whereas repertory system used to force more versatility.

That's not true necessarily. Some, especially character actors imo, can be articulate and interesting in their own right. Not to mention those who direct as well as act, which a lot of directors do.

But I agree that can certainly be the case. I feel like, because she's not conventionally attractive, Olivia Colman is often presented in intelligent roles (which is if course stereotypical) but clearly she's not intelligent in real life (or maybe having a midwife crisis?)

Oh I really love her as the loathsome sfepmum in Fleabag. She totally steals the show. Why is she is making such a tit of herself now?

I can only hope for her sake that things are so massively PR’ed up the wazoo these days that someone else was paid to draft that offensive crap and Colman was heavily paid to recite it all to journalists who asked?

Yes, some people did reclaim it back in the 90s when it was still being used as a slur, (see also Queer As Folk over here)- that was more in the US, though. And if it still upsets a lot of people, I don't see why it needs to be reclaimed.

Haha, we need more of these sorts of conversations 😂

I thought she was OK in The Crown (Claire Foy was perfect as the younger QEII) but she was excellent in The Favourite. I went to see that at the cinema and loved it.

The actor John Hurt wanged on about his Irishness, lived there too. Went on Who do You Think You Are, turned out his familiy were all from Croydon.

I don't think it hateful to say i think it nonsense that a female would describe herself as a gay man because gay men are male.

I liked her most in Broadchurch. Also like her in Rev. I wonder if it's non-coincidental that I prefer her pre-star work? She was well-known before,, of course, but not to the level she is now

I think something similar happened with Nigella Lawson when she went on in that she claimed her family were Sephardic Jews, and seemed quite keen on these, but they were actually of Ashkhenazi descent.

Interesting post, I want to watch now...