NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� 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?
鈥淭here鈥檚 lots of 'I f鈥斺�斺�� love you. I鈥檓 going to snog your face when I see you,鈥� says Colman.
鈥淲ith a long 鈥榰uuuuuu,鈥欌�� adds Buckley.
鈥淲e鈥檙e wordsmiths,鈥� says Colman.
Colman and Buckley have been good friends since they first met in a night spent, fittingly, with letters. 鈥淚s that how we met?" Colman says, jogging her memory. 鈥淏rilliant.鈥� With an American accent Buckley chimes, 鈥淲hat a good angle.鈥�
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 Adele鈥檚 鈥淪omeone Like You鈥� and Amy Winehouse鈥檚 鈥淏ack to Black.鈥�
鈥淲hich maybe kind of summed up the night,鈥� Buckley says. 鈥溾�楽omeone Like You,鈥� that鈥檚 a love song, isn鈥檛 it? Oh, no, it鈥檚 a break-up song. We were just falling in love. 鈥楤ack to Black鈥� is about addiction.鈥�
Buckley pauses for effect, and then adds, 鈥淚 was addicted to you.鈥� Colman cheers.
In Thea Sharrock鈥檚 鈥淲icked Little Letters,鈥� 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.
It鈥檚 based on the real story of the which at the time became a national scandal. 鈥淲icked Little Letters鈥� is a rare thing: a raunchy period movie.
鈥淲e kind of have this idea of Britain and the women who lived in the 1930s were just making wholesome bread and going to church,鈥� says Buckley. 鈥淏ut the truth of it is they were filthy (expletive). They鈥檙e just like all of us.鈥�
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.
鈥淚t鈥檚 certainly acknowledging the journey that women have had,鈥� Colman says. 鈥淚t was at that point better than it had been in previous points, and shows how far have we come since. We still haven鈥檛 come quite far enough.鈥�
Part of the delight of 鈥淲icked Little Letters鈥� 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.
鈥淚 said, 鈥楾here鈥檚 this script and it would be you and me as neighbors swearing at each other and having fun,鈥欌�� recalls Colman. 鈥淎nd I think you went, 鈥極K!鈥�"
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. 鈥淣ew York is the land of dirty martinis,鈥� 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 Gyllenhaal鈥檚 鈥淭he 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 didn鈥檛 have any scenes together, but overlapped on set for a week while Colman was quarantining.
鈥淚 would go, 鈥楥ome on, when do you finish? What do you want to drink? I鈥檒l have it ready,'" recalls Colman. "So we鈥檇 spend the evening in the sunshine and drink and play guitar and sing. And Jessie would go, 鈥� (Expletive). I鈥檓 about to go to work.鈥� You were so heroic playing late into the night and then going to work.鈥�
When it鈥檚 pointed out that Colman seems like she could be a bad influence under such circumstances, Buckley immediately brightens.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a joke amongst our friends where Olivia鈥檚 like, 鈥楴o you can鈥檛 go home.鈥� At your birthday there was a whole song about not letting anybody leave the party.鈥�
鈥淚 have done awful things,鈥� acknowledges Colman, lowering her head. 鈥淚 have locked my front door and hidden the key. (Changing to a drunk voice) 鈥業 don鈥檛 know where it鈥檚 gone.鈥� I have images of friends running. They see an open door and they go running.鈥�
It perhaps goes without saying that Colman and Buckley bear little of the repression that lurks around the edges of 鈥淲icked Little Letters.鈥� They're separated by some years 鈥� Colman is 50, Buckley 34 鈥� but sympatico in infusing parts dramatic and comic with naturalness and spunk.
鈥淭he 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. There鈥檚 so much in our world that we think we need to be because it鈥檚 around us,鈥� Buckley says. 鈥淲hat I鈥檝e come to learn is you just have to keep educating and feeding and nurturing yourself. And there鈥檚 something so much more interesting for you to say than adopting what鈥檚 deemed acceptable in society.鈥�
Working with people like Colman, Buckley says, has helped wake her up to those possibilities 鈥� possibilities she never imagined when she was 15 years old. 鈥淎nd I know that will never stop in my life,鈥� she adds. 鈥淭here's too much to unpack!鈥�
Colman takes up Buckley's thread.
鈥淚 do love the fact that I didn鈥檛 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 didn鈥檛 get so I can go, 鈥楬a! In yo鈥� face.鈥� I think it gives you a little bit of a fire in the belly.鈥�
Soon thereafter, it鈥檚 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.
鈥淲e鈥檒l do a little one,鈥� says Colman, settling it. 鈥淲e are getting much more grown up, aren鈥檛 we?鈥� Buckley vigorously shakes her head. 鈥淣o?鈥� responds Colman. 鈥淭hen I can force you to stay out tonight.鈥�
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Jake Coyle, The Associated Press
