Olivia Colman continues decade-long campaign against domestic violence: 'Women are still expendable'

Actress Olivia Colman has been vocal against domestic abuse endured by women for almost a decade and yet she is baffled by the lack of political interest and involvement in fixing these issues. According to The Independent, the Oscar-winning actress finds herself at a loss for words and is "mystified" that domestic abuse is still a problem that remains unsolved.

"I wish I had the answer for that," she said in an interview with the outlet while sitting in a dressing room at the Unicorn Theatre. "I am mystified." An average of between two and three women have been losing their lives to their male partners or ex-partners in England and Wales every week for several years. Meanwhile, others simply endure routine domestic abuse throughout their lifetimes. "Homicides of women often do not make the news," Colman continued. "Occasionally, there is an outrage and there are marches, but too often, the outcry quickly dissipates."

"They get outraged for a minute and then it's like there is a peak, and then you just know it's going to go off the radar," the "Locke" actress said while wondering if the issue stems from a continuation of the belief that "women are still expendable."

"If it was between two and three men killed a week, would that make a difference?" she added. The interview took place when Colman was getting ready to attend an award ceremony held by the arts charity Tender. She has been a patron of the charity for almost a decade. Tender is known to host a bunch of different creative projects to teach young children, teens and young adults about the early signs of domestic abuse and what a healthy relationship and home environment looks like.

"When you consider that young people aged 16 to 24 are the 'most at risk group' for experiencing domestic abuse. This is an age where people are still 'working out' how relationships work and may, out of naivete, wrongly see jealousy from boyfriends as a 'sign of love,'" Colman said, stressing the importance of domestic abuse awareness. Colman became interested in this long-standing societal issue after starring as a domestic abuse victim in the 2011 film "Tyrannosaur." She received case studies of women who had endured domestic abuse after getting in touch with a leading charity called Refuge which is in the sector of England's largest provider of shelters for domestic abuse victims.

"My kids were little and I loved the idea that they could have these workshops and learn because my kids come from a family where we don't fight," she shared. "Many people think 'that's odd.' I mean, not even healthy fighting. We just don't fight. And my sister, who's a psychotherapist, said, 'I mean, that's great, but your kids never see the conflict resolved.'" 

Colman's husband, Ed Sinclair, whom she has been with since 2001, compared the awareness-initiating work done by Tender to the 2002 film "Minority Report." The sci-fi film features criminals getting ensnared even before they commit a crime with the help of technology. Despite the increase in awareness surrounding coercive control, the actress believes that people need to be educated in a better way to understand the "cruel machinations" of domestic abuse.

Coercive control became a crime in England and Wales in 2015 under the Serious Crime Bill. The Domestic Abuse Act, which became law in the spring of 2021, introduced the first-ever statutory definition of domestic abuse to include economic abuse and controlling and manipulative behavior that is not physical. "If you're going into a first relationship knowing about kindness and respect, it's going to set you on a good path for future happiness," Colman concluded.