Helen McCrory

The Relatable Way Helen McCrory Deals with Coronavirus Anxiety

On April 13, 2020April 12, 2021 By Gingersnap4Helen No Comments

Celebrities Are Just Like Us

by Sarah Ilston | Red Online | April 13, 2020

Coronavirus-related anxiety is something that is currently plaguing most of us, if not all of the time, then some of the time; usually creeping up when we least expect it. A feeling Peaky Blinders star Helen McCrory is all too familiar with.

Even if you’re not a key worker, or have had loved ones directly affected by virus, you’re still probably experiencing high levels of anxiety, stress and fear at home, usually when you’re just meandering the house doing mundane tasks. In fact, leading anxiety charity Anxiety UK has recently reported a 364% increase in calls to it’s helpline over the past two weeks, proving that the coronavirus crisis is having a serious effect on our mental health.

We tend to think of celebrities as having a golden, protective shield around them, that protects them from experiencing the same everyday stresses as us, but if the current pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that vulnerability and fear can strike anyone during these uncertain times, and that those in the public eye are most definitely not immune.

Appearing on the BBC’s Coronavirus Newscast, alongside husband Damian Lewis, McCrory admitted to feeling ‘overwhelmed’ at various points over the recent ‘very surreal’ couple of weeks.

Continue reading The Relatable Way Helen McCrory Deals with Coronavirus Anxiety

Helen McCrory shares her thoughts about love at first sight with husband Damian Lewis

On April 11, 2020April 13, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

We’re delighted to see Helen McCrory back on our screens again.

Last seen as Polly Gray, domineering matriarch of the Shelby family in BBC drama Peaky Blinders, , Helen McCrory claims her ongoing success is down to her ‘searing lack of ambition’.

Now Helen, 51, is to star as Major Charles Ingram’s defence lawyer, Sonia Woodley QC, in ITV’s Quiz – a three-part drama about the infamous Who Wants to be a Millionaire? coughing cheating scandal.

While many of us in 2001 were gripped by the real-life drama surrounding the major and his wife Diana, who allegedly cheated their way to winning £1 million on Chris Tarrant’s TV show, Helen confesses she ‘didn’t really have many memories of the drama at all’.

Continue reading Helen McCrory shares her thoughts about love at first sight with husband Damian Lewis

Interviews Print Media The Deep Blue Sea

Helen McCrory: ‘A good playwright works you like an athlete’

On April 10, 2020April 13, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

The actor talks about her part in launching #FeedNHS — and her role in Terence Rattigan’s ‘The Deep Blue Sea’, now streamed by the National Theatre

by Sarah Hamming | Financial Times | July 10, 2020

It’s hard to write about what Helen McCrory got up to during lockdown. Not because it was bad. Quite the reverse, in fact. In March, she and her fellow-actor husband Damian Lewis launched #FeedNHS, a scheme to provide food to front-line workers. By the height of the pandemic, it was serving 45,000 meals daily to 115 hospitals across the country.

No, the trouble is that any write-up that makes this sound remotely saintly would drive her bananas. Frank, funny and down to earth, McCrory, 51, has a fierce aversion to anything pretentious (this is a woman who, on BBC Radio’s Desert Island Discs, chose the complete works of Spike Milligan as her luxury book, wrapped in a Bertrand Russell dust jacket “just in case anybody sees me, from another island”).

Continue reading Helen McCrory: ‘A good playwright works you like an athlete’

Audio Charity Feed NHS Podcast

Helen and Damian Discuss FeedNHS Efforts on The Coronavirus Newscast

On April 9, 2020April 12, 2021 By Gingersnap4Helen No Comments

The Coronavirus Newscast

by Gingersnap4Helen | helen-mccrory.com | April 9, 2020

Every day, Adam Fleming, Laura Kuenssberg, Fergus Walsh and Chris Mason bring us the latest on the coronavirus pandemic in the UK via the The Coronavirus Newscast. They discuss the latest public health information and how it is affecting our lives. On Thursday, April 9, 2020 Helen and Damian were guests on the podcast to share with listeners about their #FeedNHS campaign and their efforts to feed frontline heroes and hospital staff.

Listen here at about 21:30 in.

Here are some soundbites and highlights in transcription form:

Continue reading Helen and Damian Discuss FeedNHS Efforts on The Coronavirus Newscast

Damian Lewis Feed NHS Interviews Personal and Family Life Print Media

Coping With COVID-19 Crisis: Damian Lewis & Helen McCrory

On April 6, 2020April 12, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

On Feeding Health Workers After Filming Halted On ‘Billions’ & ‘Peaky Blinders’

Jake Kenter | April 6, 2020 | Deadline

Damian Lewis Helen McCrory Coping with COVID 19 Crisis

As coronavirus crashed through the TV business, husband and wife Damian Lewis and Helen McCrory were among those cast adrift. Lewis was making Season 5 of Billions, while McCrory was on the brink of going into production on Season 6 of Peaky Blinders. Now, both are holed up in their British countryside home in Suffolk. But far from quietly riding out the COVID-19 tsunami, the pair have leashed an anchor of sorts and are using their platform for a much-needed mission to feed frontline health care workers in the UK.

McCrory said she spent one day doing hair and makeup and tests for Peaky Blinders, during which it dawned on much of the production team that “something very big is coming.” She explains: “The next morning I woke and told my producer I’m not comfortable doing this anymore… Cillian Murphy did the same. Together with the producers, we approached the BBC and said we’re going to pull this now before we have to do this down the line.” Production was halted March 16, a mere three weeks ago. “That all seems like a very different world at the moment. Terribly unimportant,” McCrory reflects.

Continue reading Coping With COVID-19 Crisis: Damian Lewis & Helen McCrory