The Favourite’s Rachel Weisz was awarded Best Supporting Actress at the BAFTAs Sunday night for her role as Lady Sarah Churchill, long-term lover of Olivia Coleman’s Queen Anne, and has spoken about what it was like sharing intimate scenes with the actress.
Speaking backstage at the BAFTA press conference, the 48-year-old star told reporters: “When I snogged Olivia Colman, you want to know how I approached that?
“You know, my mouth met hers, and our mouths just opened. There’s not much preparation… My character was in love with hers, and they had been lovers since they were teenagers. There wasn’t an age of consent for women – it didn’t matter as women… No preparation, Olivia is just gorgeous and lovely.”
Colman – who also won Best Actress at the BAFTAs for her role as Queen Anne – has previously recalled what it was like kissing Weisz in the eccentric love-triangle period drama, telling The Sunday Times: “Snogging is fine, because snogging Rachel Weisz is like you’ve won the lottery. The other bit – being fingered by Emma Stone – we really struggled with not giggling at that.”
Meanwhile, Weisz admitted she felt “a bit shell-shocked”after winning her award, 13 years after winning the BAFTA Britannia Award for British Artist of the Year, and revealed where she’ll be keeping her golden statue.
“I’m a bit shell-shocked actually,” she said. “It’s a massive, tremendous honour. I’m talking about things a bit shell-shocked. I’m incredibly proud, but I’ll put it somewhere private. I have a study, I’ll put it in my study.”
The actress also explained that the film nicely coincided with the #MeToo movement and Time’s Up campaign, but wasn’t a result of it, as the project had been in the works for two decades.
“I think it’s a lovely coincidence. I don’t see The Favourite as being…[about it]. Time’s Up is about women getting together to say we don’t want to be harassed or abused, and this is a film, a story from hundreds of years ago about women who were very much in power – sometimes abusing each other, in fact.
“I think they’ve been trying to make the film for 20 years so it’s a lovely coincidence that it came out at this time.”
The Favourite swept the boards at the BAFTA ceremony, winning seven awards including Outstanding British Film, Original Screenplay, and Costume Design.
