The Times Magazine 7Bristol-born actress Adjoa Andoh,
59, has performed with the Royal
Shakespeare Company, in films
including Adulthood, and plays Lady
Danbury in Netflix’s Bridgerton. She
is married to lecturer Howard Cunnell,
with whom she has three children,
and in 2014, delivered a TedX Talk
about raising a transgender child.
She lives in London.I go around incognito – I dress like
a bloke and have short hair, so I’m
rarely recognised. But two girls
spotted me in John Lewis, saying,
“It’s the eyebrows! The eyebrows!”
I admire my 21-year-old self.
I loved her spontaneity, and her
skill at watching what others
were doing, knowing what to
steal and what to copy.
I decided my husband was
worth a look, even though he had
exacting standards. We met at
the Battersea Arts Centre. He ran
the bookshop and I was part of
a theatre company. A colleague
had gone for a part-time job there
and said, “Honestly, you’d think
I was going for a job at the British
Library, the questions he asked.”
As the first in my group to have a
baby, at 22, I knew someone would
look after my daughter, Jesse, while
I was working. I was pregnant on
my first professional job, so got
fatter as the tour went on.
I feel I’ve spoken enough about
my trans son, Liam. He’s now 25
and trying to make his life in the
world, after the restrictions of the
pandemic. When my three kids,
Jesse, Daisy and Liam, and my
grandson have a good day, and
my parents and stepmother are
well, I’m happy.
I only discovered I was dyspraxic
when my eldest daughter was
diagnosed at nursery. Directing
neurodiverse drama students
I tell them to see these
conditions as giving us extra
juice. They make us more
empathetic. They’re not a minus.
Living in a London squat, I learnt
to lay bricks and pour concrete
floors. If you wanted a window in
place for bedtime, you needed to
learn how to glaze during the day.
Going to secondary school a year
early was too much. I had aWhat I’ve learnt Adjoa Andoh
INTERVIEW Susan Gray PORTRAIT Liam Danielnervous breakdown in sixth form,
and instead of getting the grades
to go to Cambridge I got three Es
at A-level. The wheels came off.
After A-levels I felt like I was
done with education. I worked
at Lloyds in Wotton-under-Edge.
Banking wasn’t for me: I was
clockwatching by 9.30am, and
my station rarely balanced, so my
colleagues had to stay late while
they uncovered that day’s mistake.
My mother was head of religious
education and a games mistress.
At school my one corporal
punishment was from her, for
chewing during games. I washit with my uncle’s size 15 plimsoll.
I only ever got 6/10 in RE
because she did not want to
show favouritism.
I share this shot of extra paranoia
all the self-employed have about
work. Essentially, if you’re not
busy then you’re not going to eat.
There is a sense that if you stand
still you sink, a sense of being
driven forward.
Jackie Kay and I were girlfriends
for a while and friends for life.
I met Jackie [the former Scottish
poet laureate] and Bernardine
Evaristo when we were in our
early twenties, through thenetwork of early Eighties
black women’s conferences.
I’m a hippie from the Cotswolds.
I get my energy from drugs:
vitamin C, black garlic, neem,
lecithin. Every morning I rattle,
taking supplements religiously.
I don’t know if they do any good
or are a placebo.
I have been a Leeds United
supporter since I was four. I love
sport, will watch any sport, so it’s
a sadness to be rubbish at it. nAdjoa Andoh narrates the introduction for
classical album Continuum. Bridgerton
returns to Netflix on March 25‘I go around
incognito – I dress
like a bloke and
have short hair’
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