Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is Rosebud, a conversation about people's memories. Welcome to the party. Cue the music. Oh my, it's another episode of Rosebud. It's still me, Giles Brandreth. But if I sound a bit, well, a bit hyper, it's because I'm really very thrilled about today's guest. She's an actress who I have admired for so many years.
I think I first saw her, actually, at the National Theatre playing Wendy in Peter Pan. I know I saw her playing Cordelia to Ian Holmes' King Lear, again in the National. She was so powerful in A Doll's House, the Ibsen play, playing Nora. And I think that's when she had a case of stage fright that we might touch on. If you know her, it could be because you discovered her on screen.
when she was cast in Channel 4's Shameless. She is an extraordinary actress. If I listed all the things that I have admired, Queen Elizabeth I in The Virgin Queen, marvellous with Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett in Notes on a Scandal. Oh, John Lennon's mother in Nowhere Boy. That was extraordinary. His dark materials, you name it. Have you guessed yet who I'm talking about?
I'm talking about Anne-Marie Duff. Very special actress, very special person. And I think you will find this is quite a special conversation. It is Anne-Marie Duff on Rosebud. Anne-Marie Duff, born 8th October 1970. My first question to you is simply this. What, Anne-Marie, is your very first memory?
Well, I guess that my first memories would be colours. So I would remember the primrose yellow of my cot. And I remember it was a very sort of 70s design and had a little sticker of a rosebud on it. Ding, ding, ding. And also that we had a green glass water jug that we used throughout my childhood for every meal. But if I had a narrative memory...
When I was very small, when I was three years old, I had major surgery, kidney surgery. And I was in for a couple of weeks and one of my strongest memories is my mum sitting beside me, just gently blowing on my scar because it was so itchy in the night because she would stay over.
Tell me more about your kidneys. What was the problem?
There was just a... I mean, it's very boring, really. There was just a large cyst inside it. And, yeah, I was a poorly little... I had a little pear-dropped face for a while. A little kidney child.
And tell me about your mother. Who was she? What was her name?
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Chapter 2: What are Anne-Marie Duff's earliest childhood memories?
No, they weren't musicians, but my dad sang an awful lot and would sing at parties.
Does he have a particular party piece?
So he would always sing to my mother. Jim Reeves was a hugely, hugely important singer for the Irish and Caribbean community. Massive, massive singer. And Dad would sing one of his songs looking at my mum. The chorus was, Oh Mary, marry me. So sweet. And he would sing that to her at two o'clock in the morning or whatever. Yeah.
Gosh. Were you the first born?
No, I'm the second born.
So your brother.
My brother.
Who is also no longer with us.
Yeah, he recently passed away, yeah. Eddie.
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Chapter 3: How did Anne-Marie Duff's upbringing influence her career?
It was a very beautiful adaptation of The Mill on the Floss that Shared Experience did a long time ago. It was adored. It was such a lovely show. And we went to... By the time we got to Sri Lanka, we were performing in quite a small theatre just outside of Colombo. And it was the beginning of monsoon. And we started the performance.
And then about half an hour into the show, there was a power cut because of the monsoon. So we then had to do the rest of the show with candles. which was unbelievable.
But also, during the interval of that show, I went outside to get some air, because it was so hot, of course, and I was with one of the stage managers, and he was having a ciggy, and we were stood, and as we looked at the tree opposite, it got struck by lightning and chopped in half.
Oh, no.
It was the most extraordinary night. Can you imagine?
Why have you suffered occasionally from stage fright? And when did that begin?
I've had one attack of terrifying stage fright, which I've talked about actually when I was doing A Doll's House, I was doing Sam Ibsen. And it was still at the point in my artistic growth where I immersed myself a little too much in the character. I didn't quite know how to separate. And it still can happen sometimes. I have to have a word with myself. I'm like, why am I so sad?
And I just remember standing on stage and I couldn't work out whether the stage was the real world or a set. And I just felt like one of those trombone shots in a movie. And everything just became so... You know the feeling when you first kiss somebody. It's just a very cosmic feeling, isn't it? You feel so connected to the cosmos.
I felt very connected to something of which I had no control, like a tsunami. And I just turned away and walked into the wings. And that's when Pastor Joseph saved me and said the best thing. He said, there are however many hundred people sitting out there, Anne-Marie, and they've all paid for their tickets. And it took... Because we both come from very working-class backgrounds.
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Chapter 4: How did Anne-Marie Duff find her passion for acting?
This is a learning curve for me. That one is allowed to shine and it doesn't rob anyone else of anything. And it's to be celebrated, not feared. Because I think often, especially as women, especially as Irish women, but women generally, we worry about taking up too much space. We worry about that in some way that will be an act of theft or that it is an act of violence.
And I don't mean to the detriment of others. I don't mean... because I find nothing more boring than people who will stand on other people to get what they want.
But what I mean is just allowing yourself to peacock your feathers' tail, you know? Ambition's slowly going back to the national, which you love because it's like home for you.
It is home. And also being on the river. I find there's something very magical about being on that river.
It's so annoying to me, because I mentioned your name to people being excited about seeing you here, and they've said things like shameless sex education.
Oh, yes, of course.
They... And yet, it's still for you, theatre is everything.
Yeah, and that's where I've worked the most in my career and, you know.
Yeah.
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Chapter 5: What challenges did Anne-Marie face during her school years?
Dear Giles, your podcast has created in me such a strong delusion of familiarity. I feel compelled to share this poem I wrote after being evacuated from Dubai not long ago and contemplating the roofs out of my window in Belfast. Sorry, Sarah Hewson. Well, don't be sorry, Sarah. I'm really pleased you wrote. I am sorry that you were evacuated.
Of course, this was the beginning of the war on Iran and all those problems, the consequent problems in the Middle East. Gosh, you were flown back from Abu Dhabi to Belfast. Anyway, the poem is called Divided House. Thank you so much for sharing it. A house stands in ludicrous abundance of sky and oxygen. Planet spins in ludicrous abundance of space and infinity. Each is shared but grudgingly.
Arbitrary lines shout dismay and protest lack of hegemony. Lines on roofs of cleaned tile and moss tile, lines on lawns of mown grass and unmown grass, lines on maps of wire and guns and landmines. Flesh tearing of increasing intensity, single serious determination to restrain one side's unearned bounty to let none seep across. all in a ludicrous abundance of sky, oxygen and space to infinity.
Powerful stuff there from Sarah Hewson. Do you know, I'm really sorry that we let Anne-Marie Duff go before we did this bit, because she could have spoken that rather better than I did. I did my best with it, Sarah. If you've got a poem or a thought, a suggestion for a guest or anything you want to say to us, you know where we are. It's simply hello at rosebudpodcast.com.
And you can check out our website, which is simply rosebudpodcast.co.uk. That's the website. That will take you to all our past episodes, 200 and more. It will also tell you how you can join, if you want to, the Rosebud family. And I think it'll give you a link to the Edinburgh Fringe website.
website where if you want a book to see Harriet and me strutting our stuff in August when we'll be there. We're doing a few tryouts in and around London too in June, July and the beginning of August. But I think that's it for this week. Next week, well, another interesting guest, but I think it'd be much more remarkable than Anne-Marie Duff. I really enjoyed that.
I'm very lucky to be here making Rosebud. My thanks to Harriet Jane, my producer, to Alec Cadell, who gets us onto YouTube to watch the recordings there, and very much thanks also to Sinead Nolan, who looks after our social media. And, well, to you for being there. Without you, there'd be no podcast. Goodbye. Cue the music.
Cue the music.
Rosebud is a Plain Jane production produced by Harriet Jane, hosted by me, Giles Brandreth, with music by Phil Leppard, and recorded this week at the J.W. Marriott Grosvenor House in London's Park Lane. Room service.
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