DRAMA
SPECIALIt wasn’t a burning ambition [that I had]
to be on TV; I just liked acting. And it’s
a really healthy thing. You’re singing
away and doing things that give you
confidence... But it was a very different
time. There had been no X Factor...
We were just a bunch of kids [at drama
school] having the best time and doing
this thing that we really enjoyed.
I’m someone who gets anxious. I worry
about what people think of me and get
over-emotional. I lie in bed thinking,
‘Oh God, I wish I hadn’t done that,’ and
think about things I said when I was
a teenager! It’s torture.
I’m really pleased I’ve stuck with
[television] all this time. I didn’t cheat
on it too much with film and I feel very
smug about that. There have been periods
where TV has felt unfashionable, but if
somebody had said 10 years ago that
Meryl Streep is doing a series, Robert
De Niro is doing a series, you’d be going:
‘What planet are you on?’
Television has upped the ante and got
really exciting. After all these years,
I feel I have got something to bring in
terms of producing, or sheer experience,
really. I like making things happen. And
it’s exciting to get to 43 and think, ‘Ooh,
I can do something else,’ as well. It keeps
it interesting.
[As an actor] you are constantly thinking,
‘Nobody wants me.’ It’s such a personal
reaction. So I don’t know what I’m still
doing in this industry.
I am a diehard fan of [Gerald Durrell’s]
My Family and Other Animals – I’m one
of those people who read it as a child
and have read it again and again and
again through my life. I was in the
process of reading it to my two littlest
ones when news about The Durrells and
moving off to do [the series] came true. It
was really, really quite emotional for me.
Ultimately... being a mother is all-
important to [my character, Louisa
Durrell]. That’s what gets her up in the
morning. There’s a lovely quote that I think
was written by [Gerald’s eldest brother]
Larry, where he says, ‘Looking back, the
best thing our mother did for us is just
allow us to be.’ She was such a good
mother, I think – and not a perfect mother;
I don’t think there is any such thing. I’m
a mother of three children and we do make
mistakes. But she was always striving. Not
always succeeding, but always striving to
be the best mother she can be.
Keeley Hawes
The BAFTA-nominated actress talks the highs and lows of acting and stepping
behind the camera to executive-produce the final season of hit show The Durrells
THE DURRELLS (s4) Stream* or watch from May 29, Wednesdays at 8.30pm on BBC First [116] available in the DRAMA pack
“The lessons I’ve learnt”
“I didn’t cheat
[on television] too
much with film
and I feel very
smug about that”
I was done [with having children] at 30.
In my line of work that’s unusual, but now
my friends are having children, I’m like,
‘Mwah ha ha, mine are all gone!’
I love being married to Matthew
[Macfadyen, a fellow actor who stars
in Succession] and I know Matthew loves
being married, too. It ties everything up
and it’s a statement to each other and to
the world. Marriage and being a mother
are absolutely crucial to my happiness
and my life.
In my youth, I was somebody who didn’t
leave home without a bit of mascara.
That’s all out the window now. I’ve got
three children and I really don’t care. You
go out a couple of times without make-up
on and nobody acts any differently. It’s fine.
I was asked to do a role once where
[I’d] have had to have worn really bad
false teeth. The director literally couldn’t
believe that I wouldn’t get there on the
day and say, ‘No, actually, forget it.’ But
I couldn’t wait to not have any make-up
on. My vanity left me a long time ago.
I am a feminist but I can’t bitch about
[ageism toward actresses] that I haven’t
directly experienced. Of course, there
are a lot of window-dressing roles you
make the best of. You are not going to turn
work down when you have a family, when
you have bills to pay, and you have to work.
It would be all well and good to say, ‘I’m
not going to work unless it’s some big,
meaty part...’ but you would sit there for
ever. You would be down the dole office.
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Foxtel MAY 25