The Favourite's Olivia Colman Wins Best Actress in Oscars Surprise

The actress who played Queen Anne in the queer-themed film The Favourite delivered a charming speech after an unexpected win.

Tracy E. Gilchrist

Tracy E. Gilchrist is the VP of Editorial and Special Projects at equalpride. A media veteran, she writes about the intersections of LGBTQ+ equality and pop culture. Previously, she was the editor-in-chief of The Advocate and the first feminism editor for the 55-year-old brand. In 2017, she launched the company's first podcast, The Advocates. She is an experienced broadcast interviewer, panel moderator, and public speaker who has delivered her talk, "Pandora's Box to Pose: Game-changing Visibility in Film and TV," at universities throughout the country.

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Tracy E. Gilchrist

February 24 2019 7:06 PM EST

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In one of the bigger surprises of this year's Oscars, Olivia Colman won the best actress award for her queer role as Queen Anne in The Favourite over the favored winner, Glenn Close. Colman has nabbed a few awards this season, including a Golden Globe and a BAFTA, but Close had been considered the front-runner.

Winning for her role in Yorgos Lanthimos's delicious 18th-century romp that costars Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone as ladies in waiting who vie to bed Queen Anne and become the "favourite," Colman delivered a characteristically charming speech.

Colman was nominated with Close for The Wife, Melissa McCarthy for Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Yalitza Aparicio for Roma, and Lady Gaga for A Star Is Born.

"It's genuinely quite stressful. This is hilarious. I got an Oscar," an emotional Colman said. "I have to thank lots of people. Yorgos [Lanthimos], my best director and the best film with Emma [Stone] and Rachel [Weisz], the two loveliest women to fall in love with and go to work with every day. You can imagine it wasn't a hardship."

Regarding the responsibility of playing a queer character, Colman told The Advocate last fall, "There are many aspects of being an actress. It's a very privileged thing if you're getting work, it's great."