Hollywood royalty Olivia Coleman reveals she was sleeping on people’s sofas before finding fame (Image: Getty)
British actress has shared that she was struggling financially before she got her big break which changed her life forever. The A-lister 51, who has had leading in the hit series , admitted that money was tight and she struggled to keep a roof over her head.
When her work started to pick up she had to move from her hometown of Norwich to . In her first year after leaving drama school, it was reported that she attended over 100 auditions.
Despite casting directors assessing her performance skills she did not secure a single role. She claimed that she ended up “sleeping on people’s sofas”.
She told the : “London is a lot easier once you’ve been paid a bit! The first years were really hard. I was going around sleeping on people’s sofas, trying to find money for the bus to go and get a job.
In 2003 n on Peep Show. She was the co-worker and on-off love interest of the main character Mark Corrigan who was played by David Mitchell.
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Olivia Coleman celebrated the 73rd Emmy Awards (Image: Getty)
The show was broadcast on Channel 4 from 19 September 2003 to 16 December 2015. In 2010, it became the longest-running comedy in the network’s history in terms of years on air.
She added: “But you find your tribe and then it’s a magical place. I don’t regret the saddest parts of my life because I learn from them.
“My first year out of drama school, I went for 100 auditions and didn’t get one. I thought my agent was going to dump me.
“After one audition I didn’t get, I went to see my mum and she said, ‘Oh well, never mind.’ And I went, ‘I just want a bit of sympathy and a cuddle then I’ll move on!’,” she continued.
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Olivia Coleman in Sydney Australia at Wicked Little Letters screening (Image: Getty)
Olivia shared: “And you do! It’s like when you watch X Factor and the contestant goes, ‘This is my big chance!’ It’s not! It’s one audition.
“If you’ve chosen this career, you’ll do them throughout your life, and you’ll lose most of them.”
The star has gone on to appear in a number of , and Channel 4 television series, such as People Like Us, Look Around You, Broadchurch, The Office and The Time of Your Life.
Over two decades on from her breakthrough, she was joined by her co-star Jessie Buckley who also went through the same turmoil.
Jessie, 34, spoke of similar financial struggles in the early days of her career, having moved to London from Killarney, Ireland.