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7 hours ago
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You’re starring in Australian medical drama The F Ward. What was the best medical fact you learned on set?
Some of the operations I studied and watched in order to emulate them, I couldn’t believe that the patient was alive. Half of their body was outside of them; that should be inside!
We had two surgeons on maternity leave who consulted on the show. One of them told me that it’s a very male-dominated world and it’s really hard for a female surgeon to survive. I was afraid [my character Dr Gloria Wall] would be seen as just a hard bitch – but they said, “No, she has to be and we love her.”
We watched footage of all the operations, which at first made me gag. My gag reflex is quite strong and I was like, “Oh my God, I can’t” – but it’s very weird how quickly you become immune to that.
Dr Gloria Wall is an admirably no-nonsense woman. Who are your favourite no-nonsense women, real or fictional?
The late Maggie Smith, the extraordinary Judi Dench, and my mum and my daughter. I met Maggie and Judi when I was doing Broadway, when I was 22 – I just remember them keeping an eye out for me. The times I met Maggie, there was never any nonsense.
What was the most Australian thing you experienced while filming?
The fact that everyone actually goes for a swim nearly every day, even when your call time was 5.45am and you would wrap at 8pm. And it’s dark, at both times – the nonchalance! “You didn’t go for a swim!” “Obviously not, it’s dark!”
And the genes – I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many beautiful people walking down the street. The nation of beautiful people. It was something to behold. And the confidence – I think in general, if you had to say Australians share one personality trait, I’d say the majority are confident but not in an arrogant way. Rather than the “sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry” of the Brits.
What has been your most memorable interaction with a fan?
My daughter’s called Gracie and she is probably, not totally, named after Gracie Fields, who was a wonderful singer in the second world war who went and sang to the troops. A fan found out that I was a fan of Gracie Fields so they collected every single newspaper cutting of her from the 40s in this beautiful book. I thought that was one of the most extraordinarily kind things to do, and I’ve never forgotten that.
Is it true that you learn your lines in the bath?
It is true! Not necessarily in very hot places, like England is right now. I blow up my pages and stick them everywhere and I am not able to get out of the bath until I’ve learned that bit, and the next night I’ll go back and do another chunk. The older you get, the harder it is to memorise. But if you’ve got to study for exams, folks, the bath is a good shout.
What are you secretly really good at?
Lighting. I collect arts and crafts period furniture, 1880 to 1920. This was when they had Vaseline glass, with uranium, which was the closest ambience to candlelight when electricity was introduced. The first thing I ever spent money on was a light. I will walk into someone’s house and say, “You need a dimmer there” or “That needs another light” … I go to every location with a bag full of bulbs.
Light affects the brain – we’re meant to have natural light … I’m always in offices or schools, dentists, so I try to do the absolute opposite and create warmth and yellows. I think that really affects how one thinks. And it doesn’t have to cost a lot of money. You’ll never find me with a suitcase without a fairy light.
What’s the best piece of advice you have ever received?
I was always taught: hope for the best, expect the worst and that way you’re not disappointed. As I got older, I was told that “expect the worst” means you’re not manifesting and you’re looking at the negative, but it’s not worked for me in that way. If you’re prepared for the worst, then you’ll never be shocked and not know how to handle it. I’m not living with a glass half empty. “Hoping for the best” is the old-fashioned way of manifesting, before we had that buzzword.
Do you ever think about what could have been if Pushing Daisies hadn’t been cancelled?
It was very much ahead of its time. Every interview people will bring that show up, because it was really special to so many people’s hearts. It was essentially a love story with music and colour and imagination. And Chuck – when do you ever get a character that’s just so rich and full of positivity?
I think there’s a call for it to come back. We’re almost 20 years older now – time goes so quickly. But it would be great to get that group of people back again. I think [creator] Bryan Fuller is a very wonderful, clever, brilliant man. We need more shows like Pushing Daisies.
What book, album or film do you always return to and why?
I find movies from the 80s and early 90s tremendously comforting. Pretty Woman, Ghost, The Goonies … I think it is the nostalgia, the music, the rose-tinted glasses. When we used to watch a movie, we knew it wasn’t real life but we all thought life could be like that. It goes against my “prepare for the worst” instinct but I like to sink into nostalgia and remember how all those films made me feel. And to be able to relive them through my child and see that they still have that effect on her.
What is the strangest thing you have done for love?
I don’t know if it’s strange, maybe daring. When I first met David [Thewlis, her former partner] we were on a plane – it was a “best of British” trip going to Cannes. Every single British actor that you could know were all on that one plane; thank god it survived, there would be a lot of films that wouldn’t have been made! But David was on that plane. We didn’t get together at that point but he’d done Naked and everyone was, “Ooh, David Thewlis”. But I was like, “Ooh, he’s northern like me!” So I went over to him and talked quite confidently. And that stuck in his mind. Two years later he said: “I liked you from that moment.” We went out for dinner and we didn’t spend a night apart for a year.
I feel like that’s the best thing you have done for love.
I’m trying to think of a strange one. For that whole first year, we bought each other a weekly gift. Every single week we had to buy each other a new present. After a while we were like, “Is this too much pressure for you as well? Let’s stop doing the weekly gift”. Now I miss the weekly gift!
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All episodes of The F Ward are available to stream on Stan in Australia
