I'm no longer the young woman I was playing before, and I'm in a profession where that continuum that is me is irrelevant to most people - they're meeting me for the first time, seeing me for the first time, and they're seeing an old woman, so that's what I've got to start being.

Harriet Walter

Categorized in : Me Woman People Time

I'm childish and silly. Most people tease me because I'm a bit daft.

Harriet Walter

tease silly people

I'm not very good at going to sleep, and that's probably my worst problem. I don't need much more than seven and a half hours, but I probably get six. I take all my problems to bed with me and fret. I can't switch off.

Harriet Walter

six bed sleep

I lived with my mother all my life until she died, and I don't really think I knew her, because I was always using her as my mother, if you know what I mean.

Harriet Walter

mother mean thinking

I just like watching people who really are not self-conscious, who aren't aware, because I fear that one could become too self-conscious, too artful, as an actor. Sometimes if you look at somebody, you can extrapolate from their exterior what might be happening in their interior. I'm nosy.

Harriet Walter

actors self people

I was not emotionally mature enough to accept any kind of success when I was young. I needed to go that long route.

Harriet Walter

mature kind long

As I have got older, I have become easier on myself. It's about realising things can't be perfect.

Harriet Walter

realising easier perfect

I'm very aware that after you've played Cleopatra, there's not a lot that can top that in this sphere, so it means that I want to almost change the sphere I work in rather completely because I will always be comparing it to Cleopatra.

Harriet Walter

spheres want mean

I read, I gossip, I do crosswords. I think chatting with friends is relaxing. I've picked them up all through my life - if you live long enough, you end up with quite a large circle.

Harriet Walter

circles long thinking

I do think that there are certain parts, if you are lucky enough to play them, that are bigger than you, and they stretch you. I don't think you become a bigger person, but you develop certain muscles you didn't have before.

Harriet Walter

lucky play thinking

I came up almost completely through the subsidised theatre. I have never been absolutely at the market interface, where I've got to sell my wares or die - I've always been protected from that.

Harriet Walter

protected interfaces theatre

My centre of who I thought I was was never very consciously about being beautiful or attractive - I think I'm one of those people who's actually grown into their looks.

Harriet Walter

beautiful people thinking

As long as I am still interested and curious I enjoy getting up in the morning, but I can't say I have a happy smile on my face 24/7.

Harriet Walter

faces morning long

I've been blessed with pretty strong stamina and healthy genes, so I'd call myself sensible. I've had regular mammograms ever since I found a lump in my breast when I was 30. Thankfully all was well.

Harriet Walter

healthy strong blessed

I've found a much better love life in older age.

Harriet Walter

love-life age love life

Some people are instantly brilliant. The Kenneth Branaghs of this world are ready-formed actors at 23 - he has used his success in lots of different ways - but there are people out there for whom acting is: 'Ooh, I can get on the telly and be famous.'

Harriet Walter

some-people success people world

Work has been the central column for most of my life; it has always been my identity.

Harriet Walter

my-life identity work life

Luckily, each generation brings forth great writers, actors, directors, and designers.

Harriet Walter

each brings generation great

I've witnessed the survival of the theatre several times when it was meant to be dying.

Harriet Walter

meant-to-be theatre survival dying

I vote, but I don't feel that I'm achieving much when I do.

Harriet Walter

much achieving feel vote

Male playwrights, on the whole, are probably more interested in male characters. They need women characters to be the women in their lives or to be the domestic difficulty.

Harriet Walter

need more difficulty women