Olivia Colman told listeners of the Good Hang with Amy Poehler podcast that filmed sex scenes make her uncomfortable and feel like she is "being unfaithful" to her husband, Ed Sinclair.
The 51-year-old actor said she avoids situations that require showing skin or pretending to have sex, adding that even staging such scenes with barriers or clothing does not ease her discomfort. "Anything where I have to show any skin, I don't like. Pretending to have sex… I don't like it. I feel like I'm being unfaithful," she said after a conversation sparked by a question from co-star Benedict Cumberbatch, who appeared earlier in the episode.
Colman, who has been married to Sinclair for 24 years and shares three children with him, said she is grateful for the presence of intimacy coordinators on sets and described some of the techniques suggested to actors when simulating sex for the camera. "Thank God for intimacy coordinators," she said, recounting that she had been advised to imagine "the sun is hitting my face" during a staged orgasm. She showed podcast host Amy Poehler a tattoo of her husband's name on her arm and said, "He's my best friend and I fancy him, which is quite nice." She added the couple's 25th wedding anniversary is next year and that they are not frequent fighters.
Colman also spoke warmly about her experience working with Benedict Cumberbatch on The Roses, calling the production "so much fun." The film, billed as a dark divorce comedy, is a re-imagining of Warren Adler's novel and follows in the footsteps of the 1989 film adaptation of The War of the Roses. Searchlight Pictures describes the story as one about a picture-perfect couple whose outwardly enviable life conceals simmering competition and resentment that explodes when one partner's professional life collapses.
Directed by Jay Roach and scripted by Tony McNamara, The Roses stars Colman and Cumberbatch as a married couple whose increasingly bitter separation escalates into comic extremes. The cast also includes Ncuti Gatwa, Andy Samberg and Kate McKinnon. Filming took place in Salcombe, south Devon, and in Los Angeles, with the leads first pictured on a Devon beach in June of last year. The film is set for release Aug. 29.
Media reports later in production suggested tensions between Colman and Cumberbatch, with one outlet citing an insider who described differences in working style: Cumberbatch reportedly adopting a serious, method approach while Colman favored a brisk, practical method. A spokesman for Cumberbatch sought to play down those reports. Neither star has publicly expanded on the accounts beyond comments about their working relationship made during publicity and interviews.
Colman's comments on the podcast are part of a broader industry conversation about how intimacy is handled on film and television sets. Intimacy coordinators have become common in recent years to choreograph scenes, protect performers' boundaries and ensure safety and consent on set. Colman credited those professionals for making difficult scenes more manageable, even as she said personal discomfort with simulated sex remains.
The Roses will be compared to the 1989 film directed by Danny DeVito and starring Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner, which itself was adapted from the 1981 novel. Producers have called the new film a "re-imagining," and early publicity has emphasized both its darkly comic tone and contemporary cast. Colman's remarks on intimacy and marital fidelity in the context of acting add a personal note to promotional interviews ahead of the film's release.