Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley were “hugely collaborative” on the set of Wicked Little Letters.

In the British comedy-drama, Colman’s Edith Swan receives vulgar, obscene letters in the post and she accuses her foul-mouthed neighbour Rose Gooding, played by Buckley, of being the author.

In an interview with Cover Media, director Thea Sharrock explained that her leading ladies were “hugely collaborative” on set and fairly shared out who was in front of the camera when they started shooting a scene.

“You only get to do the first take once,” she said. “They were very very careful in understanding and sharing when it was right that one of them should do the first take first, if that makes sense. So which way the camera is pointing in a particular scene between the two of them.

“Sometimes it doesn’t really matter, other times if a moment is either incredibly poignant and hopefully very funny, the first time has a quality that every time after that, you have to work hard to bring that back and they were both so generous thinking about each other in that choice. I’ve never quite had that level of collaboration before.”

Buckley recently revealed on the Table Manners podcast that Colman kept her on her toes by unexpectedly burping or farting during a scene. When asked if that was true, Sharrock told Cover Media, “That’s a very fair assessment. Olivia keeps all of us on her toes.”

When screenwriter Jonny Sweet noted that the farts could have posed “a bit of a problem”, Sharrock joked, “Not a problem, a joy!”

Wicked Little Letters is released in U.K. and Irish cinemas on Friday 23 February.

© Cover Media