February 11 2026, 08:15 
Olivia Colman says she has always felt a little nonbinary.
The Oscar-winner opened up about her connection to queer stories and her thoughts on gender while promoting her new film Jimpa. The film, inspired by director and co-writer Sophie Hyde’s own life, centers on a filmmaker (Colman) who takes her nonbinary teen child (Hyde’s real trans and nonbinary child Aude Mason-Hyde) for a visit with her gay father (John Lithgow) in Amsterdam.
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Speaking to Them recently along with Hyde, Colman explained why she is attracted to queer-inclusive projects like The Favourite, for which she won an Academy Award for Best Actress in 2018, and Heartstopper, the British coming-of-age romantic comedy-drama TV series.
“It’s a community that I love being welcomed into,” she said. “I find the most loving and the most beautiful stories are from that community. And I feel really honored to be welcomed.”
Colman, who has been married to writer Ed Sinclair since 2001, went on to explain that the kinship she feels with the LGBTQ+ community goes even deeper.
“I’ve always described myself to my husband as a gay man. And he goes, ‘Yeah, I get that.’ … I don’t really spend an awful lot of time with people who are very staunchly heterosexual.”
Actress Olivia Colman
“Throughout my whole life, I’ve had arguments with people where I’ve always felt sort of nonbinary,” she said. “Don’t make that a big sort of title! But I’ve never felt massively feminine in my being female. I’ve always described myself to my husband as a gay man. And he goes, ‘Yeah, I get that.’”
“I feel like I have a foot in various camps. I know many people who do,” she continued. “I don’t really spend an awful lot of time with people who are very staunchly heterosexual… The men I know and love are very in touch with all sides of themselves.”
Hyde agreed that “these binaries of gender are problematic” for many women.
“I think men are limited, too,” Colman added. “I think with my husband and I, we take turns to be the ‘strong one,’ or the one who needs a little bit of gentleness. I believe everyone has all of it in them. I’ve always felt like that.”
Colman added that it was really only after conversation she’d had with co-star Mason-Hyde that she no longer felt like and “oddity” in her experience of gender.
“I’m not alone in saying, ‘I don’t feel like it’s binary.’ And I loved that,” she said. “I came away from making this film with, ‘Yeah, I knew I wasn’t alone.’ I think I choose all these films because they’re films that speak to me. I want to help in telling those stories.”
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