'The worst thing anyone ever wrote? "Julie Walters obviously thinks she's got good legs." That was painful'
What got you started?
I just had a desire to entertain from a very early age. When I was really teeny, I used to pull the curtains across the bay window and come out, play my plastic ukulele, and pretend to be Elvis Presley or Lonnie Donegan.
Who or what have you sacrificed for your art?
My health. I didn't realise how stressful acting is until I did [the BBC film] A Short Stay in Switzerland. There was a collage of my character having all these health tests. A real nurse was doing them, and she said: "Ooh, your blood pressure's really high." It was because she had taken it during filming.
Has fame been difficult to cope with?
It would be churlish to say it has, but it has its problems. It's odd for kids. I once took my daughter Maisie to Center Parcs when she was about five. We got into the jacuzzi, and this woman said: "Are you Julie Walters? You look just like her." And I said: "No." Afterwards, Maisie said: "Mummy, why did you say you weren't Julie Walters? It's all right that you're an actress." She thought I was ashamed.
What has been your biggest challenge?
Playing Mo [Mowlam]. Physically, she was so unlike me; I tried to get out of it because I thought no one would see past the fact it was me. But my agent said: "That's bollocks. Get the wig and glasses on and get on with it."
Is there a lack of variety in the roles available to older women?
There's a lack of roles for older people generally; it's worse for women, but men suffer it as well. I don't just want to play a functional granny; drama needs to be about a character going through something. I suppose the people having the dramas in life do tend to be younger, but I think that's changing.
What's the greatest threat to the arts today?
The Tories. The arts have to be subsidised: people have got to be able to fail in order to create. When you think about where I have come from ? without subsidy, none of it would have existed.
What's the worst thing anyone ever said about you?
Some rag once wrote about the film Girls' Night, "Julie Walters obviously thinks she's got good legs." That was painful.
Have you ever had an embarrassing moment on set or stage?
Lots happened during a production I did of The Rose Tattoo [in 1991]. We had this urn where my husband's ashes were meant to be, and it kept spontaneously breaking on stage. We also had a live parrot in a cage, which had learned half my lines. It kept shrieking: "Give me a sign!" One night, I saw that it had opened its cage and was creeping out. I thought: "God's sake, he's going to fly out and crap all over everybody." After that, we got a stuffed one.
How would you like to be remembered?
As a good actor, but one who didn't take it all too seriously.
In short
Born: Smethwick, 1950.
Career: TV and film includes Educating Rita, Victoria Wood ? As Seen on TV and Mo. Has also worked extensively in theatre, including at the RSC, the National, and in the West End. Stars in the new five-part ITV series The Jury, which starts next Monday on ITV1 at 9pm.
High point: "Educating Rita, Mo, and All My Sons at the National in 2000."
Low point: "A period in the late 70s when I was very unhappy in the role I was playing."
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2011/oct/31/julie-walters-actor
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