Olivia Colman played a trick on Emma Stone during The Favourite sex scene
Olivia Colman described why she used a sponge to help Emma Stone finger her in a scene from The Favourite. (Gareth Cattermole/Getty for BFI)
The Favourite star Olivia Colman described an awkward moment involving a “big, wet sponge” during the shooting of a sex scene between her character Queen Anne and Emma Stone’s Abigail Masham.
The British actor appeared on The Graham Norton Show on Monday (December 31) along with co-star Nicholas Hoult to discuss the film, which was finally released in the UK on January 1.
“So Emma had to finger me,” Colman said, describing the setting of the sex scene they were due to shoot.
The actor, who said she trusted The Favourite‘s director Yorgos Lanthimos “completely” in filming the sex scene, revealed that she used a sponge as a prop, to Stone’s surprise.
“I put a sponge there and said it’s all right, there’s a barrier. It was a big, wet sponge,” Colman said.
Describing Stone’s reaction she said: “Her face was a picture. She was going up my leg and went…” and mimicked an expression of shock on the actor’s face, who was promptly reassured about the nature of the object she just touched.
Appearing on The Graham Norton Show, Olivia Colman mimics Emma Stone’s expression at touching the sponge while shooting a sex scene in The Favourite. (BBC)
“It’s all right, it’s a sponge, it’s a sponge!” Colman recalled telling Stone.
Filming sex scene with Emma Stone on the set of The Favourite was ‘awfully fun’
Colman and Stone have previously talked about how much they enjoyed working together on The Favourite.
Speaking at the Venice Film Festival in August, Colman said: “It was awfully fun having sex with Emma Stone.”
“It was really fun having sex with you too,” Stone responded. “We didn’t really!” she then added, as to avoid any misunderstanding.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Stone revealed it was her idea to be naked in a scene where her character is discovered in bed with Colman’s Queen Anne by the monarch’s adviser and secret lover Lady Sarah Churchill, played by Rachel Weisz.
“I had the sheet up around me,” the actor, who won an Oscar for her performance in the lead female role in La La Land, explained.
“And as we were shooting it and we did a few takes, I said: ‘Can I please just be [naked]?’
“‘I think it’s going to give Sarah something to look at when she sees that I’m not just under the sheet covered up.’
“Olivia was like: ‘No, don’t do it!’ Yorgos was like: ‘Are you sure that’s what you want to do?’” Stone recalled.
“And I was like: ‘Absolutely.’ I chose to do it. I was like, this makes sense to me. It’s an absolute [Stone flips the bird] to Sarah.”
