Olivia Colman unveiled a dramatic new look at the 22nd Zurich Film Festival, arriving at the screening of her film Wicker with long grey hair.
The 52-year-old actress, who played Queen Elizabeth II in The Crown, appeared alongside co-star Alexander Skarsgård on the festival’s Green Carpet at Sechseläutenplatz.
Colman wore an elegant white dress with miniature bow detailing and a red lip, having traded the brunette pixie cut associated with her role in Netflix’s adaptation of Pride And Prejudice.
Her appearance came as audiences prepared to see her in one of the year’s most unconventional romances. Wicker follows a lonely fisherwoman whose love life is hindered by her persistent fishy odour.
Seeking affection, her character commissions a local basket weaver, played by Peter Dinklage, to make her a husband from wicker. The creation, brought to life by Skarsgård, becomes so alluring that it provokes jealousy among the women of the village and threatens its social order.
The film’s trailer opens with an intimate encounter before flashing back to reveal how the fisherwoman became an object of ridicule because she was single. The basket maker then spends a month weaving her a husband, who eventually marries her in a chapel.
The village’s residents, including Phil Daniels, Richard E Grant and Elizabeth Debicki, become fascinated by the couple. The men want the wicker husband removed, while the women are drawn to him.
The unusual premise prompted bemused but enthusiastic reactions from viewers, with one describing it as “insane” and praising the casting. Others compared the film with Wicked and The Shape Of Water because of its unconventional central romance.
Debicki has said her character, the Tailor’s wife, is deeply unhappy until she sees the fisherwoman make a very different choice about her life. Dinklage said the basket maker was also an outsider and had affection for the fisherwoman, although he did not think he noticed her smell.
Colman has described the project as one of the best scripts she has read, saying: “I think it’s in my top three favourite scripts I’ve ever read.”
Based on Ursula Wills’s short story The Wicker Husband, the film currently has a 91 per cent “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes following its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January.
Wicker is due to be released in the United States on October 23 and in the UK on October 30.
