Kermode & Mayo’s Take - Now and Ben: Olivia Colman and Jay Roach on THE ROSES

Episode Date: August 26, 2025

Surprise! It’s another tasty nugget of Now & Ben in the Take feed. This time, Ben sits down with Olivia Colman and Jay Roach, star and director of ‘The Roses’--which hits the big screen this Friday.  This grown-up comedy with bite is all about marriage and what happens when it gets rocky. Colman plays one half of a battling couple alongside Bendict Cumberbatch—and although things might look perfect on the surface, tensions rise and resentment simmers as the pair’s respective careers start to move in opposite directions. It’s a reimagining of the 1989 classic ‘The War of the Roses’, starring Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner—and Roach has shaken things up to reflect the pitfalls of modern romance.   Ben chats to both of them about the secrets of comedy, casting, and marriage—and how this long-imagined project came to the screen. Spoilers—Olivia Colman is her delightful self on full beam—don't miss it!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Another bonus interview coming your way with top talent from the world of film, who we just can resist bringing to the tape feed for you as a bit of a tasty extra. So the roses is out this week and earlier in the summer I had a chat with its director Jay Roach who's also the man behind Austin Powers meet the parents

plus Oscar winner actual national treasure and all round good egg great egg Olivia Coleman who stars in the movie alongside Benedict Cumberbatch Now if you haven't seen the trailer it's a sort of a surbit comedy

about this marriage hitting the skids and then some based on the 1989 classic The War of the Roses starring Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas. So we chatted about what makes great comedy movies for grown-ups and whether watching this one with your partner is a good idea or a horrible one. Hope you enjoy. Here we go. Okay, Jay, let's start with you because obviously we've got a long time to wait

before the world gets a look at this movie. So come the autumn, what have audiences got to look forward to? A pretty wild ride and a lot of, I hope, questions about how best to have a relationship work and how all the things to be afraid of about how they don't work. It's meant to be a cautionary tale that is really fun to watch. And I got so lucky to work with this incredible cast Olivia and Benedict are dreamy in it and also, you know, just take you on a very moving but hilarious adventure. So I think people enjoy it. So far, the audiences that I have watched it, I've enjoyed. I watched it yesterday.

I was really glad that my wife was at work. I could just feel like it's the kind of movie where she'd be staring at me and not the screen every now and again. What were the origins of your involvement in it, Olivia? I think we've worked it out now through the interviews yesterday. I'm trying to work out how it happened in what order. But it was Venice Film Festival, and I was there for the favourite. And Ben was there.

Which is Tony as well, McNamara. So we were all there celebrating a bit boozy and paddling in the sea. And Ben and I said, we should do something together. And then Tony was there. And then this is when we get little muddled, whether it was David Greenbaum. Some of the studio people here. Pete was someone who said, oh, because I think Searchlight owned roses, more of the roses. And he said, how about a sort of a something.

Reboot. Yeah. And so then we went, yeah. And then it was eight years later. All right. Yeah. You've both seen The War of the Roses, right? Yeah.

It's classic. It's so brilliant. Have you read the novel? I did read the novel when I first took this. And the film, his film is very close to the novel. But Tony did something totally different. Yeah, it's completely reimagined. First of, it feels really modern.

Yeah. Secondly, it does that amazing thing of, I mean, me and my wife had a little tiff last night. And we got through it as absolutely fine. But it really reminded me, the movie constantly asks you, who do you think is right? And I jumped both ways all the time. Yeah, yeah. I like that.

It should be quite equal, that there's equal cock-ups and equal apologies and equal, but they're still, they just forget to really look at each other. There's times where Ivy is just a proper asshole. Oh, yeah. And how did, I mean,

a lot of actors say, like, we love playing an asshole. Yeah. I mean, you look like you really got the team. Did you enjoy that element on it? Yeah, I did. And also, I mean, you start to sort of really back your own character. And I was a bit of, you know, when Ben said, yeah, but I did that.

Yeah, well, you did this. You do start to really side with them a bit. But then I'm also very aware that she shouldn't have done that. That was a bit, I'm grateful the doughnut thing, the private jet. Yes. Yeah. I think it's one of those really tricky things in a marriage where you know your spouse is stressed, but you're almost through no thought of your own

having a great time doing something different if you have a phone call in that situation always tense but a great opportunity for humour which I think is what Tony does so well with the script you have assembled Jay some unbelievably funny people

I'm thinking of Jamie to meet you one of our own Andy Sandberg McKinnon is ridiculous Janie I mean You know, how did you assemble these Avengers, basically, comedy Avengers? You know, it's a lot easier when you have a great script. And then you have Olivia and Benedict, and everybody wants to come and play. Nina Gold was our casting director.

She did an amazing job, as usual. And we were just hanging out all last night. I was like, wow, this is a really great troupe. You know, it would be so fun to just keep doing things. But let's do, yeah, we've got to figure out something. One of my favorite scenes in the movie is the dinner table scene, where they're all stuck there. And not only the characters are stuck,

and it's very awkward and very uncomfortable and very hilarious, but I loved that the actors were a little bit on the edge of their seats, too, because nobody knew exactly what was going to happen next. When you throw Kate McKinnon into a scene like that, there are going to be some wild card. You know, I looked up the definition of screwball the other day.

I thought screwball meant... Squabody's meant wacky. It's actually taken from a baseball metaphor where you throw a pitch and it comes sliding in in a weird way. It's like it twists and... And that's what we throw Andy and Kate in. And then these guys are so on their characters.

So they're in the middle of a fight to the death, you know, in a way. And meanwhile, there's all this other comedy, you know, wildfire coming. So anyway, it was just to have them all around one table. I looked so forward to doing that. And it more than delivered. It exceeded my expectations. It seems mad that you and Benedict had never worked together before. I know, yeah.

I couldn't believe it when I read it. I was like, that can't be right. Well, we also were going, have we? Have we? Because it felt weird that we hadn't. Yeah, because, you know, obviously sometimes you're on huge productions and you've technically worked with someone, but you haven't had the same scene. Yeah.

Not even that's happened. No. I did a bit of narration for Louis Wayne. That's as close as you got. Yeah. So what was it like, looking back on it? It was, well, we were friends. We had mutual friends.

We've been to parties and going, hi, and hung out and done letters live together quite a lot. But it was a little bit nerve-wracking as well. I think, what if this is the end of our friendship, what if we don't actually get on on set. But it was really lovely. And I think we sort of fit together quite nicely. I'm irritatingly, upbeat and positive on set. And sometimes he goes, I don't know if I've done that right. And I go, and you're amazing.

You sort of pick each other up. And attacking each other is just fun. That's great. I think you're right that it seems like they've worked together forever because the chemistry is so automatic. And it's not always fun. You know, for the care, it's not friendly automatic. It's like some intent of conflict.

And yet you completely buy them as a. a couple that's been wrestling with these issues for decades. It's really cool. Well, hey, everybody, it's Simon. And hey everybody, it's Mark. And now August comes around, we're all thinking the same thing. How am I going to keep streaming, like I'm in the UK, as the Kerber de Mayo annual cruise docks in St. Martin, Easter Island, and the Outer Hebrides. Well, I've got a suggestion for you, NordVPN. You know, I had a feeling you'd probably say that. Nord provides virtual private networks, VPNs, in 118 countries, meaning you can can browse safely, securely, and just like you're at home.

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risk-free with Nord's 30-day money-back guarantee. Check the link in the description. Now, Mark, if you've shopped online, chances are you've bought from a business powered by Shopify. You know that purple, shop pay button you see at checkout. The one that makes buying so incredibly easy, that Shopify. And there's a reason so many businesses sell with it. Shopify makes it incredibly easy to start and run your business. Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses. around the world, including names like Mattel and Jim Shark to brands just getting started. Shopify has hundreds of beautiful, ready-to-go templates to express your brand style. Tackle anything from inventory to payments, to analytics, and more all in one place.

And Shopify has built-in marketing and email tools to find and keep new customers. If you want to see fewer carts being abandoned, it's time for you to head over to Shopify. Sign up for your £1 per month trial and start selling today at Shopify.com. go to shopify.com.uk.u.k slash take. Go to Shopify.com.uk.uk slash take. Yeah. And I love just this taboo lifting within it. That thing of like, surely you've wanted to kill me at some point. Like, surely you've hated my essence at some point. Yeah, yeah. And I really thought about that when Ben's character says it to you because if you don't feel that in your marriage, then maybe don't feel passionately enough about the other person. Surely at some stage.

It's so thought-provoking, isn't it? Because I remember going, well, I ever felt that? And I don't think I have felt proper hatred. I'm quite pleased. Have you both watched it with your partners? Well, my husband is a producer. On the film? Yeah, yeah.

So you've obviously watched it together. Yeah, yeah. And my wife and I watched it hundreds of times. Yeah, I think because we're watching it with a work hat on. Maybe it's different. It's not provoking the same debate. Yeah. But afterwards, I have gone, oh, I don't think I have felt that.

I'm taking that as a good thing. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. We've had a number of couples in the previews, you know, watching together and then in the focus group, talk about how, in an almost uncomfortable way, how much the film has opened up issues for them. And I'm like, that's amazing. One up and shit.

Huge part of a marriage. You know, that idea of like, I need you to know what I did today while you're at work. Yeah, yeah. Like, I have to display it. I just go quiet. And then a few days later, we'll bring it up. It also made me think about actors being married to actors or musicians to musicians

and made me feel very grateful that my wife's a teacher I don't think I could be an actor an out-of-work actor and my wife was an incredibly... My wife was Olivia Coleman. It was working all the time. It would drive me up the wall. I don't know.

Thank you. Jay, the house, the house. It was like a feat of architecture in real life to me you know, watching it be built within the story and then seeing the interiors and obviously the big fight that takes place within it. But it made me think, is it a real house? And I looked it up and you've got your designer. Mark Wicker, yeah, yeah. But in a way, it is real. Because he's had to create this thing that would be designed by an architect, right? Yeah, absolutely. Just talk me through that process because it's spectacular. That's cool. He had to cook that up.

In fact, it took a while for me to talk him into doing the film. He had a lot of of other things, but he suddenly had a vision for that house way before we even got Greenlit to do the movie and sent me sketches of it. I was like, oh my God, this is a whole character now in the movie. And I like that it represents what they hope will save their marriage, that it's meant to be the thing that reunites them, but it's pretty overdone and it's pretty, you know, it's an amazing place, but it's sort of dooms them to wander around in this big space and deal with their actual issues.

And then, of course, because it's almost a mirage of a solution, it gets unraveled over time and becomes the battleground for the end. And it's a notably empty nest as well. But the kids gone. It's like the strange focus in their marriage and then the thing that they fight over the most. Do you think you guys will work together in the future?

I hope so. It's remancing the stone to be done next. Of course, yeah. We've got to think about that. Yeah, keep doing their films together. Somewhere, somewhere again quite close to London would be quite handy. Where was it shot? The exteriors are mostly in South Devon,

a town around Salcom. Okay. And the interiors were all at Pinewood. Nice. So we shot the whole thing here to look like Northern California. That makes me feel very proud of my green and pleasant land. What have you got coming next day? Anything exciting?

I'm not sure. I'm working on some things of my own that I'm trying to actually write something, which has been a while since I've done that. So I'm not sure yet. It takes a lot of self-disciplines or force yourself to write when no one's asking you to. I'm a little spoiled now, though. I may just say, you know, Tony, would you write it? Because I really just had the most incredible collaboration with Tony.

He was around not just in prep doing the script, but he was around on the set all the time. He's been around in post. He's got such an incredible instincts, and the tone, it was hard to get right. And to have a real collaborator like that was really, yeah, fantastic. Your history is in comedies, you think the next thing you do write or direct, will be more because I just feel like there isn't enough comedy. I watched The Ballad of Wallace Island last week, which is... Oh my God, that's, I think, basically, a perfect film.

Yeah. Oh, my God. Curtis was right about it. It's amazing. It's beautiful. And then this, and I was like, oh, my God. Two adult comedies. I don't mean adult, like, raunchy, but, like, comedies for grown-ups.

Yeah, yeah. I hope that they don't make them anymore. Start to get made because they, I think the pandemic kind of dampened a lot of that. Because we just fell out of the habit of going and hanging out with strangers and laughing your asses off, you know, and I hope we can get that tradition going again. Yeah, it feels like the climate, though, for it, doesn't it? Yeah, yeah, it's starting to. Yeah, coming out of the pandemic, well, maybe I'm wrong. I would have thought there'd be lots of comedy. But actually, there's a lot of, you know, stuff that was helping you work through

what just happened. Yeah, heavy, heavy stuff. And I think now we probably need a bit of lightness. And how about you, Olivia, what's coming next to you? And will there be more comedy? Because to see you, for me, from a fan point of view, I think of you, yeah. You know, we work together on Rev, but I'm thinking Green Wing, obviously, Pete's show, you know. Yeah. Well, the next thing's Pride and Prejudice. That's kind of funny. Yeah, it is.

And, oh, no, Jim Pell's not very funny, very lovely. Wicker is funny, but also quite heartbreaking. Wicker, okay. Those two aren't coming out this year, though. Right, right, okay, fine. So that's not very helpful. No. Fair enough.

Sorry. Well, I'll wait, romancing the stone. That's what I'll do, part rebrand. That'd be great. Somewhere in Essex would be really nice. Yeah, within the M25J, make that work. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you, man. Thanks for the best for the movie.

Thanks very much.