35 Dennis Watt

Many of the cast in this have been stage actors, it has that feel? Yeah, well J.K. goes back to A Few Good Men [a play by Aaron Sorkin] and being an understudy.

When you’ve been in this industry for a period of time you do start to cross paths and you’re coming back and you’re all threading through each other’s lives so a lot of times there will be a history there.

Have you been wanting to work with Aaron Sorkin for some time? Yeah. I mean I never thought I would be put into one of his films.

It just seemed so far off because his films get cast and you hear they are being made and you’re like, ‘Oh who’s in that?’

So it was really nice when it came my way. I adore him.

You’ve played real people before but no-one quite as recognised and revered as Lucille Ball? I mean Virginia Woolf was a different challenge because people didn’t actually really know what she looked like.

And vocally, I remember coming to Stephen Daldry and I had found a small recording of her voice and I really latched onto that .

He was like, ‘No, no, no, absolutely not. You’re not to sound like that. I just want you to sound British’ so that was very different.

I didn’t quite realise what I was taking on with this, which is a good thing because once I had committed, I couldn’t then pull out.

So when it really came and hit me in the face what was going to be needed, I was already too far in.

What was the biggest challenge of playing this role (not suggesting you struggle with anything as an actor)? I always struggle, no, that’s an important thing to say – always struggle.

Heart-pounding and adrenalin and nerves and feel like, ‘My gosh’ – yeah, I mean I struggle.

I’m never, ever going, ‘I’m going to come in now and just fly through this or coast through it’.’

There’s always an enormous amount of trepidation and fear and that’s why I think it is very much about saying, ‘Are we going to get there?’

And honestly, some days and takes and stuff, it’s like, ‘Are we going to have to reshoot that? Oh, we don’t have the money to reshoot it. Yikes, are they going to be able to pull that together?’

I mean that’s how you constantly feel … ‘Am I getting this? Am I getting it?’

You know that whole terrible inner voice that can really sabotage.

There was a screening of this film, it was in Westwood, I will never forget it.

It was the first time we showed the movie and it could have been a really, really bad but it was the opposite.

I didn’t expect what was coming so it was probably one of the most emotional moments in my actual career in terms of how much I was holding in and how much I did not realise was riding on it and all that being released that night.

It was just an extraordinary moment.

It’s like when you’re on stage and suddenly there is applause at the end and it’s really genuine and you can feel the applause and it comes through you and you’re like, ‘We might have a shot here, this has connected and this is vibrating in a way where people are affected.’

It’s an astounding feeling.

You’ve had such an incredible career and you seem to just get better and better as an actress and you’re still so passionate about the work you do? It’s really exciting.

And to be this age and still excited – that’s in you – that’s the thing where you go, ‘Well, that’s why I’m an actor because I can still feel excitement’.

And I get to be passionate about my work, but it’s not work, it’s a combination of my passion and my life and my artistic alignment and contribution.