Olivia Colman and Maggie Gyllenhaal are hanging at the posh Ham Yard Hotel in London's Soho district, and there's a low-key freak-out happening because Phoebe Waller-Bridge is in the venue's theater to see "The Lost Daughter," Gyllenhaal's keenly observed filmmaking debut, and Gyllenhaal is wildly excited and mildly nervous about how she's going to react to the movie.
"She's going to love it," Colman assures Gyllenhaal, and as Colman worked with Waller-Bridge, playing her godmother on "Fleabag," her comfort carries some weight. But after a pause, Colman, a woman given to playful silliness, can't help herself. "What if she isn't in the theater? What if she made a big scene and walked out?" Gyllenhaal laughs and jumps right on board. "Phoebe Waller-Bridge has left the building!" (Judging from a post-screening embrace between Gyllenhaal and Waller-Bridge, posted on social media, everything turned out OK.)
This easy camaraderie between Colman and Gyllenhaal began from the moment they met on the Fourth of July in 2019. Gyllenhaal was several months into adapting "The Lost Daughter," Elena Ferrante's novel about Leda, a middle-aged professor taking a working vacation on a Greek island. A chance meeting with a young mother, Nina (played by Dakota Johnson), prompts Leda to make some curious choices as she sifts through her own conflicted feelings about being a parent.
