A complex, more than slightly emotionally unstable heroine that makes multiple people vie for her affections? Well, of course that was what Sophie Chapman was preparing Olivia Colman for starting back in 2003 when Peep Show first premiered on Channel 4 in Britain. While Sophie appears lamb-like enough at the outset of the show, as the series develops, her cutthroat nature regarding getting what she wants out of a “partner” (as foul as that word is) becomes increasingly evident by the fourth season, when she finally surrenders to Mark’s (David Mitchell) longtime crush by getting engaged to him, only to find herself curiously eyeing his best friend (sort of) and mostly non-paying roommate, Jeremy (Robert Webb).
With the same underlying insecurities regarding her appearance as Queen Anne in The Favourite, Sophie, in her best imitation of a coquette, asks Jeremy, “I sometimes wonder what I’m doing with Mark, getting married. I mean, whether he’s really into me. And I have lived enough? I’ve only slept with four men, is that enough?” Jeremy, the Abigail Masham (Emma Stone) of the scenario with his aura of shiny and newness, is all too eager to bait her with the temptation of his alternative junk to Mark’s, the Sarah Churchill (Rachel Weisz) figure in this case. And Sophie, like Queen Anne, who hasn’t been properly wooed or flirted with in a while by her own usual “monogamous” piece, opts in for the experiment–for the thrill of being seen in a new light. The dazzle of being desired anew.
Colman, who, based on her acceptance speech, was expecting Glenn Close to win (just as she rightly did the Golden Globe when everyone somehow thought Lady Gaga would and also for some reason Melissa McCarthy wasn’t even nominated in the category), undeniably tapped into the nuances of someone both as simultaneously sensitive and shrewish as Sophie. And, unlike putting on the tiara of yet another famous queen recently (as Queen Elizabeth II on The Crown), the ability to play Sophie for so long is what imbues Colman’s rendering of Queen Anne with such a subtly human (in terms of being plebeian like all the rest of us non-royals) quality. That, and her proneness to bouts of disappointment with others expressed through unbridled rage. One can’t help but think of her seething while yakking in a public toilet, “You’re like a life support machine, Mark.” Mark foolishly replies, “Thank you Sophie,” leaving it open for Sophie to deliver the final death blow of: “Except, instead of giving life you SUCK IT ALL OUT.”
Of course, Sarah would beg to differ with any such assessments from Queen Anne, who has responded to Sarah’s egregious statement referencing the tests Anne has put her through over the years, “Love has its limits” with the glib return, “It should not.” And it shouldn’t. Clearly, that’s just how Sophie feels in terms of putting Mark through the wringer all the way until the very end (even dangling whether or not the child she’s pregnant with is actually his, which it could very well not be based on her Queen Anne’s sluttery). And, in the final season, only “resorting” back to him when she realizes the person she’s ended up with is actually worse (something Queen Anne, too, must reconcile after ejecting Sarah from the kingdom).
In short, Sophie Chapman is Queen Anne (and maybe Yorgos Lanthimos secretly only cast her after binge watching Peep Show, apprehending that no other person could play this part)–and also that castrating Hotel Manager in Lanthimos’ true masterpiece, The Lobster. Which is why it’s shocking–appalling, really–that she shouldn’t think to thank her, or that period in her life that didn’t involve being a cleaning person (one can only recall Maggie Jacobs [Ashley Jensen, the true Olivia Colman of the mid-00s, and who also, incidentally, had a role in The Lobster] so doing in Extras to the tune of Kate Bush). But so it is with acceptance speeches. Nerves being what they are, actresses always forget to thank the little people–even when those little people are their past selves.
