Top 30 Olivia Colman Quotes

To play something which is a big spectrum is so much more fun, so much more of a challenge.

I feel fortunate that I’m not a beauty. I’m not a classic beauty. I feel it is harder for girls who are like that. There are fewer parts.

It gets slightly daunting if you’re watching the telly and everybody’s gorgeous. It’s just so rubbish. And I’m grateful that it’s not so much anymore – it’s great to see.

This may sound mad, but you sort of assume that no one’s going to watch what you do. You go on set, have a lovely time, and then you forget anyone’s going to see it. So it’s always a bit of a shock to be recognized. I get terribly embarrassed.

I’ve always done drama, but I suppose ‘Tyrannosaur’ was a bit of a watershed moment for me. It was like when Kathy Burke did ‘Nil By Mouth’ – suddenly, people were saying, ‘Oh, she can do that, too.’

I started off in comedy, but that’s just where I got my work. I’ve always been an actor.

I want everyone to know what they deserve in relationships: that they can demand equality and kindness. Because everyone will have a relationship at some point in their life. It’s what we all do, every day, and we need to know how to do it.

I am a perfectly normal woman. If what we do is storytelling and represent people that we see all day and every day, well, we do not see supermodels all day and every day.

I used to want to be in ‘Downton’ because I had never been in a period drama, but then I did ‘The Suspicions of Mr Whicher’ and had to wear one of those frocks and… I didn’t feel very comfortable.

I am just an actor – all I do is I memorise someone else’s words and tart around.

I was rubbish at school.

My older brother, who was in the Army, now owns his own building company. My half-sister was a nurse and is now a psychotherapist.

Actually, lots of women, when they’re pregnant, feel like steel. They feel incredible.

I eat a bit too much; my teeth aren’t perfect; I’ve got eye bags. I look like a normal 39-year-old woman – but in England, no one minds that.

I’d feel bad pretending my life was anything other than pretty good, so I do the role as well as I can and then I go home, have a cup of tea, see my family and friends, and appreciate what I’ve got.

In fact I was slightly badly behaved at school and got in trouble. I would get a bee in my bonnet about something I thought wasn’t right, and I would ape about too, to make everybody laugh. That was my way through my girls’ school, because I wasn’t very academic.

I’m really enjoying being able to do these unhinged comedies and emotional dramas alike. I’m having a lovely time. After shooting a role that requires months of crying, it’s quite nice to be able to play something very different.

My mum was a nurse, and her passion was geriatric care. I used to love listening to the old people’s stories in her nursing home and picturing myself in their place. They’d say, ‘I went to school in a horse and cart,’ and I’d just think ‘Wow!’ I’d picture myself in their place – acting was a natural progression.

I think each person you play has a little bit of you in it – you can’t really help that.

Acting is playing, and it is like being a big kid. Yeah, it’s great. You get paid.

I always assumed I’d be a terribly patient mum but it turns out I’m not!

I’ve always wanted to play a Marvel baddie. I’m not sure I fit the mold, though. Like a powerful, extraordinary woman. Somebody with superpowers would be really fun, but I’m not sure how many middle-aged women they have in Marvel.

If a script is good, you are 10 steps into the part just reading it. But my choices are not all down to my taste. It is about people you have worked with before.

I suppose I have played a lot of put-upon women, but it’s never bothered me. They’ve never been weak – they’ve always got steel in them.

After those first two BAFTAs, I didn’t really get offered anything, which makes you think, ‘Oh, no!’ And, after I finished the second series of ‘Broadchurch,’ nothing came up for six months, which really is a long time, and I got a bit panicky.

I did a forward roll for the kids the other day, thinking it’d be a breeze like it was when I was six, and I had to lie flat for about 20 minutes afterwards – ‘Leave mummy alone; she’s feeling a bit dizzy.’

I think I remember being held by my mum as a baby.

I can see why people keep having babies. We were looking at a school for my youngest this morning, and there were all these little boys and girls. So sweet. And then the teenagers walk past, and, my God, they’re enormous, and I bet they don’t kiss their mummies. I’m just going to force my children to remain lovely.

I was never one of those surly teenagers who doesn’t smile. My lovely godfather said it was always lovely to see me because I was the only teenager who smiled. And I was so in awe of him, I thought it was one of the best things anyone had ever said to me. So it made me want to live up to what he said.

I’m always keen to have more training as a charity patron.