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Olivia Colman reaches out to Glenn Close after winning Best Actress in hilarious Oscars speech

Watch Olivia Colman's Oscar speech here

olivia colman oscars
Emmy Griffiths
TV & Film Editor
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After wins at the BAFTAs and Golden Globe Awards, it was hardly surprising when Olivia Colman took home the Oscar for Best Actress for her role as Queen Anne in The Favourite. The British star, who is best known for her roles in Peep Show, Broadchurch and The Lobster, looked overwhelmed by her win, and proceeded to have the audience in stitches with her incredible acceptance speech while praising Glenn Close, who was also a frontrunner for the Oscar with her seventh nomination.

After giving her husband, Ed Sinclair, and Emma Stone a hug, the actress accepted the statuette from Frances McDermond before making her speech through tears, joking: "It's genuinely quite stressful. This is hilarious! Okay, I have to thank lots of people and if I forget anyone I'm going to find you later I'm going to give you a big snog and I'm really sorry if I might forget now. But Yorgos (Lanthimosmy) best director in the best film and Emily (Stone) and Rachel (Weisz) the two loveliest women in the world to fall in love with and to go to work with every day. You can imagine, this wasn't a hardship."

READ: Royal roles in Oscar history that were nominated for Academy Awards

olivia colman 1© Photo: Getty Images

Olivia looked overwhelmed by her win

She proceeded to apologise to Glenn, who is the first ever actress to have been nominated seven times without a win, saying: "To be in this extraordinary category with these extraordinary women. Glenn Close, you've been my idol for so long and this is not how I wanted it to be and think you're amazing and I love you very much. I love you all." In response, Glenn laughed and shook her head from the audience.

READ: See Glenn Close's most famous film roles

olivia oscar© Photo: Getty Images

This is Olivia's first Oscar win

Olivia then continued: "Thank you Lindy King my agent, who took me on over 20 years ago... and my mum and my dad, well you know! And my kids who were at home and watching - look! Well if you're not, well kind of well done, but I sort of hope you are. This is not going to happen again... Any little girl who practising their speech on the telly, you never know! I used to work as a cleaner and I loved that job but I did spend a lot of my time imagining this."

favourite olivia

Olivia won for her role in The Favourite

Noticing that the producers wanted her to wrap up her speech, she said: "Oh please wrap up, okay," before blowing a raspberry, which had the audience in hysterics. She concluded her speech by thanking her husband, and calling out Lady Gaga in the front row, saying: "My husband Ed, my best friend, I love so much. 25 years you've been my best supporter. He's going to cry! I'm not. Thank you so much, Fox, the cast the crew, Francis, Sam, thank you! Lady Gaga! And Melissa! Thank you!"

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