Olivia Colman was Yorgos Lanthimos' only choice for The Favourite

Update::

British actress Olivia Colman was director Yorgos Lanthimos' first and only choice to play Queen Anne in The Favourite.In the new period comedy, Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz star as two warring cousins vying to become the Queen's favourite right-hand person in early 18th century England. When the Greek director began casting the film in 2014, years before production got underway in 2017, he sent the script to Olivia because she was his only choice. "For me, casting is very instinctive," he explained to The Hollywood Reporter magazine. "It's one of those things when you feel you're right and you need to insist no matter what." Olivia agreed straight away, making the film her second turn as a queen after playing Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother in the 2012's Hyde Park on the Hudson. She will also be portraying Queen Elizabeth II in season three of Netflix series The Crown. The casting for her supporting stars wasn't as straightforward, because Yorgos was not convinced about hiring American Emma to portray British Abigail. After reading the script, she "begged" him for the part, but he only let her audition after she worked with an accent coach for at least a month. "I don't think he had thought of an American actor in the film at all," Emma said. "Or at least for that character." The director also didn't go for Rachel immediately for the part of Sarah, but thought of his The Lobster star after talks with Kate Winslet and Cate Blanchett fell through. Before the shoot began in early 2017, the actresses were put through their paces in bizarre rehearsal games, which included them quickly walking backwards towards each other to see if they crashed and building "a human pretzel". "It enabled them to not take themselves too seriously, learn the text in a physical way by doing completely irrelevant things to what the scene is about, just be comfortable about making a fool of themselves," Yorgos explained. The Favourite is in cinemas in some territories now, while others open in 2019.