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Helen McCrory, who has been awarded an OBE, on why she’s never wanted people to see her as ‘sexy’

On June 4, 2016April 27, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

Helen McCrory is known for playing strong women. She’s the gunslinging matriarch in period gangster drama Peaky Blinders and her CV is full of meaty stage roles, including a heartbreakingly defiant Medea at the National in 2014, and big-screen appearances, notably as an intransigent Cherie Blair in The Queen. So it’s strange to see her sitting down and eating very daintily, pushing the food to one side of her mouth.

“Look at me, I resemble a little gerbil,” she says.

Personally, if I had to compare her to an animal, it would be a cat. She has a feline sensuality and a formidable emotional intelligence which have marked her out as one of the most compelling actresses of her generation. These qualities are being put to good use in her latest stage role as Hester Collyer, the tragic wife at the heart of Terence Rattigan’s smouldering 1952 master-piece The Deep Blue Sea. The unhinged, sexually infatuated Hester has abandoned her High Court judge husband and Eaton Square home for a chaotic, all-consuming affair with boozy, former RAF pilot Freddie.

Continue reading Helen McCrory, who has been awarded an OBE, on why she’s never wanted people to see her as ‘sexy’

Charity Damian Lewis Interviews Peaky Blinders Print Media Sir Hubert Von Herkomer Arts Foundation The Deep Blue Sea

Peaky Blinders star Helen McCrory: ‘Actors are just people who can’t write their own words’

On May 26, 2016May 10, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

Helen McCrory Talks Peaky Blinders, Deep Blue Sea and Her Charity

by Imogen Blake | May 26, 2016 | Islington Gazette

Helen McCrory & husband Damian Lewis pictured with Debbi Clark, chief executive of the charity.

What does 1920s Birmingham gangster drama Peaky Blinders and an American western have in common?

More than you might think, according to Tufnell Park actress Helen McCrory, who’s back on our screens as the hard-as-nails Aunt Polly in the third series of the hit BBC show.

“Something that the Americans have understood is that they have mythologised their people.

“A bunch of cow herders going across the west are turned by John Wayne into a western. The gangster by [Martin] Scorsese has been turned into the hero.

Continue reading Peaky Blinders star Helen McCrory: ‘Actors are just people who can’t write their own words’

Peaky Blinders Print Media

Helen McCrory: David Cameron, leave our BBC alone, before the Peaky Blinders come down Downing Street

On May 9, 2016April 13, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

The award-winning actor argues that she has ‘never heard anybody whine’ about paying the licence fee

by Jess Denham | May 9, 2016 | The Independent

Helen McCrory plays Aunt Polly in popular BBC2 drama Peaky Blinders while her husband, actor Damian Lewis, starred in Wolf Hall

(BBC)

Helen McCrory has promised to set the Peaky Blinders on David Cameron if the government does not “leave the BBC alone”.

The award-winning actor plays the fearsome Aunt Polly in the BBC2 gangster drama, which returned for its long-awaited third series last Thursday.

Speaking to The Independent at the show’s press event in April, McCrory argued that she has “never heard anybody whine” about paying the £145.50 licence fee, which Culture Secretary John Whittingdale memorably branded “worse than a poll tax” in 2014.

“I know that our money has fallen from when Peaky Blinders started because of what is happening at the moment,” she said. “I think that the government policy at the moment of thinking that the country cares about the licence fee, frankly, when you look at what’s happening in Brussels is the least on our f**king minds.”

McCrory, 47, drew attention to acclaimed recent series such as Poldark, Banished and Wolf Hall, which she claims form an argument in themselves for protecting the BBC. “[The list of great BBC shows] goes on and on and on and that is because the BBC commissions TV with ambition,” she said. “Can you please write to David Cameron and ask him to leave our BBC alone before the Peaky Blinders come down Downing Street?”

Sunday night’s Bafta TV Awards were dominated by calls for the protection of the BBC, with Wolf Hall director Peter Kosminky using his winner’s speech to speak out in its defence.

“Our BBC is the envy of the world and we should stand up and fight for it,” he said, earning a standing ovation. “If we don’t, blink and it will be gone. There will be no more Wolf Halls, just a broadcasting landscape where the only determinate of whether something gets made is whether it’s like to line the pockets of its shareholders. It’s time for us to stand up and say ‘no’ to this dangerous nonsense.”

Damian Lewis Interviews Personal and Family Life Print Media

A Life in the Day: Helen McCrory, actress

On May 1, 2016April 14, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

The TV and stage actress on being married to Damian Lewis, saving on grocery bills and age

by Caroline Scott | May 1, 2016 | The Sunday Times

The daughter of a Scottish diplomat and a Welsh physiotherapist, McCrory, 47, went to Queenswood boarding school in Hertfordshire and the Drama Centre in London. She lives in north London with her husband, the actor Damian Lewis, and their children, Manon, 9, and Gulliver, 8.

I get up at about 6.30, then wake the kids and get breakfast ready either with the nanny or my other nanny — Damian. He’s just back from his other job, acting, and once we find a uniform that suits him, he’s going to adapt quite well.

I tend to put on whatever isn’t too crumpled on the floor, and like to pop a hat on because I do look like Janis Joplin left overnight in the tumble dryer. Breakfast is an apple and any yoghurt the kids have left in the bottom of the bowl. I’ve tried to be more organised; I’ve even gone through phases of setting the table the night before, like some strange B&B. But I’ll still have to run up and down the stairs shouting: “Have you got your tie? Have you cleaned your teeth? Oh well, eat a mint!”

Acting work is feast or famine, and right now Damian and I are both at home, which is lovely. We’ve just done our house up. Well, we’ve put in new plumbing and electrics before we burn the street down. We’ve been here for 10 years and there are still lightbulbs hanging from wires. But I’m so uninterested. I spent three weeks emailing paint and wallpaper samples to Damian on set and it left me brain-numb. I have patience in bounds when it comes to family and work, but care less about the house.

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Interviews Peaky Blinders Print Media

BBC Media Centre: Interview with Helen McCrory – Peaky Blinders Series 3

On April 28, 2016May 10, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

Helen McCrory plays Aunt Polly Gray

Polly watches the family and can see who is coping in this new world and who is not. The situation becomes very much sink or swim, with Polly definitely swimming.

— Helen McCrory

Where did we leave off with Polly in series two and how do we find her in series three?
We left Polly in series two having been reunited with the son that had been taken from her when he was young. She understandably feels hugely guilty about her past and wants to defend him with everything she has. Campbell (played by Sam Neill) sees this weakness in her and uses it to humiliate her, and she compromises herself in order to save her son. Polly is further humiliated by the fact that her son and everyone else knows what she has done and so she does what Peaky Blinders do, and she kills Campbell.

How does Polly reconcile her actions in series two with her conscience?
At the beginning of the third series you find a woman that, as a Catholic, is damned as a murderer. This series explores what happens to Polly’s soul and her mind as she carries the knowledge that she has killed a man. It is interesting to see how she battles with her conscience while still being part of this world that continues to be involved in killing.

Continue reading BBC Media Centre: Interview with Helen McCrory – Peaky Blinders Series 3