Amusing & Insightful Guardian Interview with Brit Actor, Miriam Margolyes
Portrait of the artist: Miriam Margolyes, actor
'I've been very lucky – I've worked consistently and I haven't had to kiss a lot of people on stage'
What got you started?
You're born with the performing gene. I was a show-off at school, so it was inevitable I would become an actress.
Who or what have you sacrificed for your art?
Nothing at all. I have lived an entirely egotistical life, for myself alone.
What's the best advice anyone ever gave you?
Max Stafford-Clark once told me to "play the opposite". It's about showing a character's layers: when you're playing a happy person, you show them sad; when you're playing an angry person, you show them contented. I don't like Max very much, but I think he's a very good director.
Is it more difficult for women to sustain an acting career than for men?
Everything's harder for women: harder to start, to stay employed, to run a life with a family. I've been very lucky – I've worked consistently, and I haven't had to kiss a lot of people on stage.
What advice would you give a young actor?
See as much theatre and cinema as you can. Ask yourself, would I have turned my head at that point? Would I have smiled at that remark?
What's the worst thing anyone ever said about you?
I can't recall a bad review – maybe I'm due one. But the worst thing would be if somebody said I was inaudible. Reach your audience's ears – only then can you reach their hearts.
Is there anything about your career you regret?
I very much regret that I haven't been taken more seriously. I would love to have been at the National or the RSC.
What artwork would you like to own?
A Rembrandt self-portrait. He's the most compassionate and human of all the great painters. When he painted himself, he painted what he really saw, with truth and a refined honesty.
What one song would work as the soundtrack to your life?
Handel's Arrival of the Queen of Sheba. It has a lovely fanfare about it.
What's the best way for the arts to survive the funding cuts?
I think about that a lot. The answer is to never let up – to keep insisting that the arts are not peripheral, but absolutely central to the economic and spiritual life of the nation. Protests are essential: the squeaky wheel gets the oil.
Is there an art form you don't relate to?
I find ballet a bit sticky. I can't stop looking at the male dancers' genitals; there's just a bit too much bulging.
In short
Born: Oxford, 1941.
Career: TV and film includes Blackadder, The Age of Innocence and Harry Potter. Theatre includes Wicked and Endgame. She performs in Me and My Girl at the Crucible, Sheffield (0114 249 6000), until 29 January.
High point: "Getting the OBE and a Bafta. And knowing I'd really got it right in Endgame."
Low point: "If I were ever out of work. An actor can't go away on her own and act – you'd just become a basket case."
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