In this intimate interview, Olivia Colman delves into her experience filming Jimpa, a deeply personal project directed by Sophie Hyde. Colman discusses the trust and emotional vulnerability required to portray Hannah, a character heavily inspired by Hyde's own life. She reflects on the challenges and rewards of playing a role so close to the director's heart, navigating the complexities of family dynamics, and the profound impact of the film's exploration of queer love and chosen families.
You can feel a great deal of love going into Jimpa from all directions. It’s a deeply autobiographical project from Australian director Sophie Hyde, who most recently directed Emma Thompson to great acclaim in Good Luck to You, Leo Grande. Hyde has both an impassioned queer parent and a trans child, and brings that experience to the screen in Jimpa. Colman plays Hannah, a woman living in Adelaide, Australia, who functions as a stand-in for the filmmaker.
The movie follows her as she takes her child, Frances (played by Hyde’s own child, Aud Mason-Hyde), to Amsterdam to visit Hannah’s boisterous father—affectionately referred to as Jimpa. The reunion brings about a sprawling, tragicomic examination of queer life and chosen families across generations. Colman learned a lot while making Jimpa—about herself, about the LGBTQ+ community, and about her director turned friend. \Vanity Fair: What did you like about Sophie when you first met her over Zoom? What made you want to jump into this project with her? Olivia Colman: Well, she’s a proper actor’s director. To sound really wanky, you need to feel trusted and safe to be able to do a lot of things that are asked of you, and she really understood that. I thought this would be a really enjoyable process and I’d make a good friend out of it. Plus, I’d never been to Australia. I don’t really like leaving home, so that was quite brave of me, I thought. I loved the story, I loved the love behind it—I liked that she was working with Aud, their child. That’s, I think, a good sign. If you’re willing to take your kid on a journey like that, then it’s got to be a nice, loving sort of environment. For someone who doesn’t love to leave home, you go to Australia, you go to Amsterdam—you’re going all over. I know. What an idiot. Australia is particularly far away. How did you experience it? It was only three weeks in Australia, and that was manageable. I was away on Mother’s Day, which was a bit much. I did have a cry, but everyone was so nice. My husband and the kids asked if they could arrange some flowers. This poor man arrived at my hotel door with some flowers and a chocolate cake, and I burst into tears. He must have thought, Oh my God. While you’re away from home, you’re also playing this incredibly emotional material related to family and loss. Did it hit you harder? Well, yeah, and I lost my dad during COVID, so that was quite a lot. Doing some of the stuff , holding John’s hands—they were very nice about it, everyone, but every now and again, I’d say, “Sorry, I’m crying much too much. I know I am, but I’m going to a funny place.” Maybe it helped that I was away from home. I don’t know. I don’t want that to become a regular thing. The crews that we had in Australia and Amsterdam really understood how Sophie worked, and Sophie is very delicate with the way things are done. It’s all about the emotion, and you feel like you can do what you need to do and she’ll get it. There weren’t loads of takes, which I like. I get very frustrated with loads of takes—I unravel a bit. I can imagine, especially when it’s material this heavy. Yeah. Can you imagine doing that 15 times?\When you first spoke with Sophie, did she indicate that you would be playing a version of her? How did you interpret the character and their autobiographical components? I felt I was playing her, and then she’d always go, “Well, it’s a version.” It was very meta and had a lot of Sophie’s experiences, but also mixed in with a bit of artistic license. I met Sophie’s real mum, and the real Jim did look very much like John, and it was beautiful. A lot of his fights for visibility and for the rights of the gay community were exactly what her dad did. I felt like I was being mainly Sophie. More than that, it was just a really beautiful story, and genuinely, Sophie did have a life trying to avoid conflict, even with this stuff. All the lines in it, like “my dad being gay and my dad being my dad were all one and the same”—she did talk like that about her lovely dad. Did you feel pressure, playing the person who’s directing you? Yeah, I haven’t had that before. I felt quite nervous at the beginning, but very soon, Sophie just made you feel like, You can’t go wrong. It’s your interpretation. It’s you doing it. And she just let me crack on with it, really. How did you go about crafting the character as you were getting to know Sophie? What were some of her traits you wanted to bring out in the performance? I could feel that she didn’t really lose her cool. She never really got very angry. She was always able to take a breath, have a think. I was like, Wow. I would’ve definitely lost my temper a bit more at that point. It is a good learning curve anyway, for everyone to try and be a bit more like Sophie Hyde. It’s the ability to just count to 10 before you say anything extraordinary. I couldn’t do it, but I would like to try and be a bit more like her
JIMPA OLIVIA COLMAN SOPHIE HYDE LGBTQ+ REPRESENTATION AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL FILMS FAMILY DRAMA AUSTRALIAN CINEMA INTERVIEW ACTING DIRECTOR
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Olivia Colman on Basking in Queer Love—and Crying Her Eyes Out—in Aussie Drama ‘Jimpa’“If I could work with the queer community and trans people on every film, I’d have the happiest life,” the Oscar winner tells Vanity Fair. “Also, I learned more about myself.”
Read more »
What FKA Twigs and Olivia Colman Wore this WeekWe’ve rounded up the best looks from celeb events this week. Included: FKA Twigs, Olivia Colman, Brenda Song, Macaulay Culkin, and more.
Read more »
Paddington in Peru Posters Put a Spotlight on Olivia Colman & Antonio Banderas’ CharactersNew character posters for Paddington in Peru, the third film in the beloved Paddington franchise releasing next month, have been released.
Read more »
10 Best TV Dramas That Spanned Generations, RankedOlivia Colman as Princess Margaret in The Crown Season 4
Read more »
John Lithgow Embraces Nudity in 'Jimpa' for Emotional DepthJohn Lithgow fully committed to his role in the film 'Jimpa,' embracing nudity as a key element of his character's portrayal. Director Sophie Hyde highlighted Lithgow's enthusiasm and openness in exploring the depths of Jimpa, a gay activist who left his family in Australia to live openly in Amsterdam.
Read more »
Colman Domingo On His Back-To-Back Oscar NominationsThe Sing Sing star is the first actor to receive back-to-back Best Actor nominations since Denzel Washington.
Read more »