Show us the woman who doesn’t want to be best friends with Olivia Colman, and we’ll show you a liar.

The British actress is enormously talented and clever, utterly hilarious and looks like she’d be fun at a party. What’s not to love? But considering the fact that she is very, very famous and we are not, we’re happy to settle with watching her chew up the scenery in some of the best movies and television shows from afar.

Like this year’s The Favourite, in which Colman turned in a truly masterful performance as the odious, badly behaved Queen Anne. Ravaged by gout and manipulated at all turns, her monarch was full of equal parts melancholy and misbehaviour, with a touch of naughtiness too. It was, without a doubt, one of the best performances of the year.

And Awards Season has agreed with us so far, nominating Colman for almost every major award and giving her a Golden Globe, too. At the end of February, she’ll be up for Best Actress alongside Lady Gaga, Glenn Close, Yalitzia Aparicio and Melissa McCarthy. 

And at tonight’s BAFTAs, she walked away victorious with the statue and a standing ovation, too. (This, by the way, is her fifth BAFTA.)

In her speech, Colman thanked “all the producers, obvs” of The Favourite. “We’re having an amazing night aren’t we? We’re going to get so pissed later.”

She added: “I don’t know… I do know what to say! I’ve actually written something down. To my fellow nominees, to be in the same company with you is such an extraordinary honour and I think the work you all did was extraordinarily beautiful.” 

To her director Yorgos Lanthimos, she said: “I can’t think of the words to thank you enough for letting me do this. My most favourite time ever.” 

But Colman saved her highest words of praise for her two co-stars Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone, both of whom were nominated for BAFTAs. “The thing I really want to do is thank Emma and Rachel,” Colman said. “Must keep it together. Not just for your performances, but for what you did. You were the best and classiest and coolest honour guard any woman could ever have and I love you.” 

Scanning through her notes, Colman joked “I’ve done that bit, I think I’ve done that bit.” Finally, she concluded with a rousing celebration of The Favourite’s resplendently female narrative. “This award is for not the lead but a lead and as far as I’m concerned, all three of us are the same and should be the lead. But it’s weird that we can’t do that,” Colman said. 

“This is for all three of us. It’s got my name on it, but we can scratch in some other names.” 

The night was a glorious celebration of The Favourite all round. Rachel Weisz was named Best Supporting Actress, thanking Colman and fellow co-star Emma Stone in her speech. “I had the greatest luck in that I played opposite two of the most glorious women,” Weisz said. “I salute you. Didn’t we have a glorious time?”

Director Yorgos Lanthimos picked up the trophy for Outstanding British Film, Sandy Powell was recognised for her costume design and screenwriters Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara received the Best Original Screenplay award. In total, The Favourite took home seven awards.

Here’s hoping the movie can pull off a similar clean sweep at the Oscars on 25 February. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to get another glorious speech like this from Colman at the end of the month?

Images: Getty