The story “Truer than we believe”: Scandalously, your actors were fired

In December 2021, they co-starred in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Lost Daughter, which earned them both Oscar nominations, but where they did not play opposite each other as they played the same character at different ages.

Today, Olivia Colman and Jesse Buckley face each other in Scandalously Yours. In a lighter register and more flowery language, as the feature film returns to the funny true story of abusive letters in England in the 1920s.

A chance to talk abuse with two actors who blew up: “Thanks for making us say bad things.”Olivia Colman will tell us at the end of the interview. common pleasure.

AlloCiné: The film tells a story “True than we believe”. Did you know him before reading the script, or did you discover him along with the project?

Jesse Buckley : No.

Olivia Colman : No, neither do I. We discovered this thanks to the script.

Jesse Buckley : And we learned that it really happened in the 1920s, that these letters were real, that they caused a scandal at the time, provoking debate in Parliament and headlines in the country’s press. Two women even went to jail for this story! It was shocking and very exciting. I said to myself: “Thank God there were few ill-behaved women in the 1920s!” (laughs)

You talk about bad parenting: how embarrassing is it to swear and say so many bad words in one movie?

Jesse Buckley: This is such a hit!

Olivia Colman: But that’s the case with anyone. If you let yourself say the worst stupid thing for a day, you’ll feel so good at the end.

Jesse Buckley: After that, you are completely relaxed and sleep peacefully.

If you let yourself say the worst stupid thing for a day, you’ll feel so good at the end

And it must have been all the more liberating here in an English feature film, since both of them have done American films, where things are tougher at this level, because the two “fooks” are rated R (restricted to those under 17).

Olivia Colman: That’s right, yes. And it’s all the more fun because the classification system in the United States worries us: violence is normal there. But if you swear or suck, what a scandal! When you’re in France or the UK, everyone is quiet about it (laughs)

Last night I saw the movie “Everything But You” with Sydney Sweeney and Glenn Powell, and after hearing two “fooks” in five minutes I realized it’s rated R in the US. The same with you: after two minutes I had no doubts.

Jesse Buckley: (she bursts out laughing) And two hours later you say to yourself “It’ll Never Come Out” (laughs)

Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese must be jealous.

Olivia Colman: I hope ! They should just come and make a movie in Europe.

Were you able to improvise what you say in the film or did you have to stick to what was written?

Olivia Colman: It was very specific, very strange as a way to swear. What was in Johnny Sweet’s script, and even the actual letters, were funnier than we could have imagined. So there was no improvisation on that front.

Jesse Buckley: And we didn’t need it, there were already so many (laughs)

Olivia Colman: There was no room to add more.

Jesse Buckley: I even wonder if they are missing us. We have to watch the movie again.

Which swear word do you use most often on a daily basis?

Jesse Buckley: “damn” !

Olivia Colman: yes “damn” I say it every day. “shame” Also and “To hell with the heart”, which reminds me of this video from Incarceration: a little girl looking so cute in a striped top, a barrette in her hair, playing with flowers as the balloons go by. And he says: “Bubbles…come back bubbles. Oh damn!” Then he goes back to his plants. The fact that he knew the pronunciation and knew when to use it was funny and cute.

Do you know how to swear in French?

With these big words and these damn small letters, Scandalously Yours also speaks to the place of women in the early 20th century and their struggle against patriarchy. Is that how you saw it, beyond the fun side of the abuse?

Olivia Colman: Yes, but we watched the movie together yesterday for the first time after saying in interviews how funny it was to make. Except we found ourselves holding our hands and crying because we forgot the moving parts. Because it’s about women fighting to be seen and noticed, to be free in mind, body and choice. It was scary at the time.

Thank God we have evolved, even if we still have a long way to go. We can obviously start with, for example, equal pay between men and women. But it’s fascinating, just like the movie shows: policewomen couldn’t have children or husbands. Isn’t that crazy?

The film tells the story of women fighting to be seen and noticed, to be free in mind, body and choice.

Jesse Buckley: And the single mother will be stigmatized. That might be true in some places, even though they are superheroes to me. They are incredible. Single dads too for that matter.

Olivia Colman: But it is true that the woman had to lie about her marital status in order not to be cast out.

Jesse Buckley: And it will haunt her daughter for the rest of her life.

Comments collected by Maximilien Pierret in Paris on February 14, 2024