Entertainment

‘This is hilarious!’ Olivia Colman’s Oscars speech in full

The British actress praised her fellow best actress nominees Glenn Close and Lady Gaga as she accepted the trophy.
The British actress praised her fellow best actress nominees Glenn Close and Lady Gaga as she accepted the trophy. The British actress praised her fellow best actress nominees Glenn Close and Lady Gaga as she accepted the trophy.

Olivia Colman had the audience in stitches with her best actress acceptance speech at the Oscars.

The actress, who took the accolade for her portrayal of Queen Anne in Yorgos Lanthimos-directed film The Favourite, was visibly stunned as she took to the stage.

She said: “It’s genuinely quite stressful. This is hilarious. I got an Oscar!

“OK, I have to thank lots of people. If, by the way, I forget anybody I’m going to find you later and I’m going to give you all a massive snog and I’m really sorry if I might forget now.

“But Yorgos, my best director and the best film, and with Emma and Rachel, the two loveliest women in the world to fall in love with, and to go to work with every day, I mean, you can imagine, it wasn’t a hardship.

“And to be in this category with these extraordinary women, and Glenn Close… you’ve been my idol for so long and this is not how I wanted it to be and I think you’re amazing and I love you very much.”

Colman thanked her agents Lindy King, Olivia Homan and Hildy Gottlieb and her publicist Bryna Rifkin.

She said: “I love you all. Thank you, Lindy King, my agent who took me on over 20 years ago, thank you so much. And Olive and Hildy and Bryna, who made me do things that I said no to, but she was right.

“My mum and my dad… well, you know. And my kids who are at home and watching, look!

“Well, if you’re not, then, well done, but I sort of hope you are. This is not going to happen again.

“And any little girl who is practising their speech on the telly, you never know. I used to work as a cleaner and I loved that job, I did spend quite a lot of my time imagining this.”

She then said that she was being asked to “please wrap up”, and blew a raspberry as the audience laughed.

Colman continued, thanking husband Ed Sinclair: “Thank you, and my husband Ed, my best friend, I love you so much; 25 years, you’ve been my best supporter, he’s going to cry!

“I’m not. Thank you so much, Fox, everybody, the cast, the crew, Frances, Sam, thank you.

“Argh, thank you so much… Lady Gaga!”