Glamour: What’s the message at the end of the film? Don’t get married? Or don’t let your relationship get so out of control?
Benedict Cumberbatch: Don’t try this at home. No, it’s about not losing sight of one another, staying in the conversation, not splitting off into corners and fermenting toxic hatred and resentment, and trying to build bridges of love. Their love is still there, and the deep hurt is caused by the idea that it isn’t.
So true. What is one fascinating thing you learned about each other while making the film?
Cumberbatch: She can fart. No, I know how special of a person she is. She lights up a room. She is unnaturally nice. She’s authentic. That’s the real gift. People get very protective and defensive and put walls up. I know I do all the time. So it’s very nice to see someone as free as her.
Olivia Colman: Ben and I have known each other for a long time, but it was nice to get to know each other properly because a lot of our meetings have been slightly boozy at a party. We’ll sit and chat, have a lovely time, but to go to work with Ben every day, who’s always energetic, always knows what he’s doing, always kind to everybody, and is the best person to sit opposite in a scene. You go to work with a friend and think, Oh my God, I hope this isn’t the end of our friendship, and it wasn’t. It made everything so much better.
Cumberbatch: Thank you.
Colman: I love you.
Olivia, you and your husband, Ed, are both producers on the film. What was that like?
Colman: It was lovely that we could be in the UK because then we weren’t away from our families. We worked five days a week, which was so nice. We’re very lucky in the UK that our hours are pretty strict, which is great. We know what time we’re going to finish every day. And that’s nice, so everyone can get home.
Cumberbatch: It makes it joyous for everyone. Massive.
Colman: In the states, the hours are so long.
Since this movie is about love and long-term marriages, how did you know that your spouses were the right one?
Colman: Well, I met Ed in the third rehearsal of a play. I walked into the room and saw his left-hand profile, and I went, Oh that’s him. I’m going to marry him.
You did not.
Colman: Yeah, I absolutely did. Thunderbolts. He was very slow on the uptake, so I had to chase him around the place, which would now be classed as stalking.
