NEW YORK (AP) ā and play women brought together by letters in the new film but their preferred means of communication is WhatsApp. With their husbands, they have a group chat with an unprintable name, inspired by the some of the foul language of their film. What do they write to each other?
āThereās lots of 'I fāāā love you. Iām going to snog your face when I see you,ā says Colman.
āWith a long āuuuuuuu,āā adds Buckley.
āWeāre wordsmiths,ā says Colman.
Colman and Buckley have been good friends since they first met in a night spent, fittingly, with letters. āIs that how we met?" Colman says, jogging her memory. āBrilliant.ā With an American accent Buckley chimes, āWhat a good angle.ā
Each were attending a performance in Britain where actors dramatically read historical and literary correspondence. Buckley read a Maud Gonne love letter to WB Yeats. The night wore on with karaoke until 6 a.m. Songs included Adeleās āSomeone Like Youā and Amy Winehouseās āBack to Black.ā
āWhich maybe kind of summed up the night,ā Buckley says. āāSomeone Like You,ā thatās a love song, isnāt it? Oh, no, itās a break-up song. We were just falling in love. āBack to Blackā is about addiction.ā
Buckley pauses for effect, and then adds, āI was addicted to you.ā Colman cheers.
In Thea Sharrockās āWicked Little Letters,ā which Sony Pictures Classics will release in theaters Friday, Colman and Buckley play very different neighbors in 1919 England. Edith (Colman) is a conservative, church-going woman with a domineering father (Timothy Spall) who lives next to Rose (Buckley) a free-wheeling single mother who unabashedly spews salty language. When people around the village start receiving filthy anonymous letters hurling insults at them, suspicion turns toward Rose.
Itās based on the real story of the which at the time became a national scandal. āWicked Little Lettersā is a rare thing: a raunchy period movie.
āWe kind of have this idea of Britain and the women who lived in the 1930s were just making wholesome bread and going to church,ā says Buckley. āBut the truth of it is they were filthy (expletive). Theyāre just like all of us.ā
The film, which Colman produced with her husband, Ed Sinclair, takes place while suffragettes are marching. And while Edith and Rose become sworn enemies, they're bonded in their mutual experience of male oppression.
āItās certainly acknowledging the journey that women have had,ā Colman says. āIt was at that point better than it had been in previous points, and shows how far have we come since. We still havenāt come quite far enough.ā
Part of the delight of āWicked Little Lettersā is that it puts a spirited pair of friends opposite one another for the first time, with Buckley playing a free and frank woman not so unlike herself and Colman playing something like her timid opposite. Colman called up Buckley to offer her the role.
āI said, āThereās this script and it would be you and me as neighbors swearing at each other and having fun,āā recalls Colman. āAnd I think you went, āOK!ā"
In between interviews at a Soho hotel, Colman and Buckley's conversation focused mainly on how long they might have to hang out that evening. Or more specifically, how many drinks they could manage to squeeze in. āNew York is the land of dirty martinis,ā Buckley declares.
Colman, though, was just flying in and out, and Buckley had an early call time the next day. It was a similar situation on Maggie Gyllenhaalās āThe Lost Daughter," for which Colman also suggested casting Buckley. ("You owe me!" chimes Colman in a cockney accent.) But on that film, Colman and Buckley didnāt have any scenes together, but overlapped on set for a week while Colman was quarantining.
āI would go, āCome on, when do you finish? What do you want to drink? Iāll have it ready,'" recalls Colman. "So weād spend the evening in the sunshine and drink and play guitar and sing. And Jessie would go, ā (Expletive). Iām about to go to work.ā You were so heroic playing late into the night and then going to work.ā
When itās pointed out that Colman seems like she could be a bad influence under such circumstances, Buckley immediately brightens.
āThereās a joke amongst our friends where Oliviaās like, āNo you canāt go home.ā At your birthday there was a whole song about not letting anybody leave the party.ā
āI have done awful things,ā acknowledges Colman, lowering her head. āI have locked my front door and hidden the key. (Changing to a drunk voice) āI donāt know where itās gone.ā I have images of friends running. They see an open door and they go running.ā
It perhaps goes without saying that Colman and Buckley bear little of the repression that lurks around the edges of āWicked Little Letters.ā They're separated by some years ā Colman is 50, Buckley 34 ā but sympatico in infusing parts dramatic and comic with naturalness and spunk.
āThe biggest gift that this job gives you is that you get to learn something that you need to unlearn in yourself. Growing up into a woman from a girl is hard. Thereās so much in our world that we think we need to be because itās around us,ā Buckley says. āWhat Iāve come to learn is you just have to keep educating and feeding and nurturing yourself. And thereās something so much more interesting for you to say than adopting whatās deemed acceptable in society.ā
Working with people like Colman, Buckley says, has helped wake her up to those possibilities ā possibilities she never imagined when she was 15 years old. āAnd I know that will never stop in my life,ā she adds. āThere's too much to unpack!ā
Colman takes up Buckley's thread.
āI do love the fact that I didnāt get into any drama school apart from Bristol which I got into because somebody else dropped out," Colman says. "I love all the auditions I didnāt get so I can go, āHa! In yoā face.ā I think it gives you a little bit of a fire in the belly.ā
Soon thereafter, itās time for Buckley and Colman to move along. As the sun gets lower on the downtown skyline out the window, the pair return to pondering their plans for the evening.
āWeāll do a little one,ā says Colman, settling it. āWe are getting much more grown up, arenāt we?ā Buckley vigorously shakes her head. āNo?ā responds Colman. āThen I can force you to stay out tonight.ā
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Jake Coyle, The Associated Press
