Does Olivia Colman think she’s a gay man? Here’s what she actually said

Olivia Colman attends "The Roses" UK Premiere at the Odeon Luxe Leicester Square on August 28, 2025 in London, England.

The internet is suggesting that Olivia Colman is a gay man, but that’s not what she said. 

“Olivia [Colman] suggesting she’s effectively a gay man because she has short hair and is attracted to men is patronising and insulting. Does she think homosexuality is hairstyles?” an X post with more than 145,000 views reads. 

The X post, which saw a lot of backlash, referenced a comment Colman made in an interview with Them about the movie Jimpa, which is about a bisexual mother named Hannah (Colman) who takes her non-binary child to visit her gay father in Amsterdam.

Colman said that it “wasn’t too much” of a stretch for her to play Hannah, as although she’s not queer, she understood her character’s viewpoint. She did not, however, mention anything about hairstyles, as the X post suggests, instead talking about traditional gender roles. 

She shared: “I’ve never felt massively feminine in my being female. I’ve always described myself to my husband as a gay man. And he goes, ‘Yeah, I get that’ And so I do feel at home and at ease. I feel like I have a foot in various camps. I know many people who do. I don’t really spend an awful lot of time with people who are very staunchly heterosexual.”

So, no – Colman is not a gay man and does not identify as one. She has simply said that she feels at ease within the LGBTQ+ community and doesn’t align with feeling “massively feminine”. 

Colman, who first rose to fame in cult comedy Peep Show (2003-2015), continues to be a loyal LGBTQ+ ally. She has condemned “violence and hostility against trans women”, expressed her love for working with the LGBTQ+ community in film, and consistently spoken out against anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric. 

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