Olivia Colman calls out ‘unspeakably rude and threatening’ people who take selfies without asking

‘Sometimes in the UK, someone will literally hold a phone to my face,’ said actor

Olivia Colman has recalled unpleasant encounters she has had with people who have spotted her in public.

The Crown actor recently moved from south London to the countryside, where she is enjoying a little more privacy.

“I’m happy here,” she told The Guardian. “I like being able to be outside and no one can see me. I wear a woolly hat and I’m loving the mask thing.”

She said she was recently out walking her dogs when she saw a group of people coming towards her, so she pulled her scarf up over her face.

“I panicked and put my thing up,” she said. “And this woman went, ‘I do recognise you, Olivia!’ Well, don’t say anything then – I’m clearly trying to hide! What is wrong with everyone?”

She added: “Sometimes in the UK, someone will literally hold a phone to my face; that has never happened to me in America.

“Over there, they’ll say, ‘Excuse me, may I take a photograph?’ And you say, ‘Oh well, thank you for asking so nicely!’ But here most people don’t ask and I think that’s unspeakably rude and threatening.”

Colman will next be seen in the drama Landscapers, which was written by her husband Ed Sinclair.

“You know, he’s my biggest fan, and I’m his biggest fan... he just wanted to write something for me, which was lovely,” she said.

Colman will also star in Netflix film The Lost Daughter alongside Dakota Johnson, Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal.