'It has been lots of fun, hating each other'

Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch on family dynamics and working together for the first time in The Roses, in cinemas now

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Before the idea to reimagine the 1989 classic film The War Of The Roses came about, Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch had never worked together.

Despite being good friends off screen, they had been patiently waiting for the right project to put their spin on.

British actor Cumberbatch, 49, who played Sherlock Holmes in BBC One's Sherlock, believes the 51-year-old Oscar winner only agreed to costar with him in their new macabre comedy because she could be the "worst version" of herself.

"I think really it's because in this film she gets to be the very worst version of Olivia Colman there could ever be," says Cumberbatch, who received Oscar nominations for his performances in The Imitation Game and The Power Of The Dog.

"And I've relished watching her do it. We've both got a vicarious kick out of it."

"Yes, it has been lots of fun, hating each other. There's something rather therapeutic about getting to be utterly horrible to someone, and then having a good laugh about it later," adds Colman, who has won acclaim for her starring roles in The Crown, Broadchurch, The Lost Daughter and her Oscar-winning turn in The Favourite.

"She has been a lot of fun to work with. She's an amazing collaborator with this lovely, joyous, upbeat energy, which I would be exhausted by having to exert. It's just who she is. She's like that through and through.

"And, as an actress, she has this unique range between comedy and tragedy. It's effortless for her," says Doctor Strange star Cumberbatch.

They make it look so easy, and being funny is hard. It's hitting something so undefinable and unscientific. But it comes naturally to them, like a sixth sense