Olivia Colman, Anjana Vasan, and director Thea Sharrock on Wicked Little Letters

We were recently joined by actors Olivia Colman and Anjana Vasan, as well as director Thea Sharrock to chat about the “hoot” of a new mystery comedy, Wicked Little Letters.

After her first read of Jonny Sweet’s “laugh-out-loud funny” script, Sharrock says she was shocked to find out that it was based on a true story.  Knowing Olivia Colman was attached to play the buttoned-up Edith lended Thea an early sense of the nuanced comedy, as she found she could hear Colman’s voice in her head while reading. Colman tells us that though her character expresses great suspicion toward the character of Rose (played by Jessie Buckley), truthfully Edith admires Rose’s independence from inside the strict confines of life with her controlling husband.  Anjana Vasan’s character, Gladys Moss, is another woman of Littlehampton who is forging an untrodden path for women of the time, as the town’s first woman police officer.  Vasan says she infused her character with many subtle physical details that convey Gladys’ increase in confidence over the course of the film.

The goal for each of them, whether on screen or in the editing room, was to expertly balance both the riotous absurdity and the dark realness that unfolds in Wicked Little Letters.

Watch the full conversation below.

Q&A on the film Wicked Little Letters with director Thea Sharrock, actor & producer Olivia Colman, and actor Anjana Vasan. Moderated by Mara Webster, In Creative Company.

When people in Littlehampton--including conservative local Edith--begin to receive letters full of hilarious profanities, rowdy Irish migrant Rose is charged with the crime. Suspecting that something is amiss, the town's women investigate.