Anne-Marie Duff

Anne-Marie Duff0:00

This is the B B C.

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Hello, I'm Kirsty Young. Welcome to Desert Island Discs, where every week I ask my guests to choose the eight tracks, the book and the luxury item that they'd want to take with them if they were cast away on a desert island.

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For rights' reasons, the music on these podcast versions is shorter than in the original broadcast. You can find over two thousand more editions to listen to and download on the Desert Island Disc's website.

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My castaway this week is the actor Anne-Marie Duff. Most people in her profession spend a lot of time out of work.

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She is very clearly not most people. Her role call of parts is abundant and anguish laden, whether it's playing Lady Macbeth on Broadway, Elizabeth I. on the BBC, or Joan of Arc at the National Theatre, her work rate and the characters she inhabits are formidable.

Presenter1:12

The seeds of her ambition took root in what appears at first glance to be unlikely soil, a grey breeze block council estate in suburban West London, where her Irish parents had settled to try to make a living and a life.

Presenter1:25

Then again, maybe it was her upbringing, which she describes as rich in fun and love, that gave her the confidence to pursue the precarious ambition of pretending to be other people. She says I came from a very working class background, and the idea that you could make more of yourself through culture, that it could give you wings, was just phenomenal to me. I love that expression, that it could give you wings. And do you feel changed when you've been through especially a part that does require as so many of your parts seem to?

Anne-Marie Duff1:46

That it could

Presenter1:53

Plumbing those emotional depths. Yeah, I guess you do. You come out feeling like you'd had a sort of Turkish massage.

Anne-Marie Duff1:54

Yeah.

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Uh

Presenter1:59

Are you a s superstitious person? Do you have rituals before you go on stage? I am fantastically superstitious. I know it's not fashionable to say, but I am. I'm a really old school superstitious actor.

Anne-Marie Duff2:04

Yeah.

Anne-Marie Duff2:05

I am a m

Presenter2:08

And I, for example, won't say Macbeth unless I'm in it, I can say it'cause I'm in it right now. And I have little rituals I do before shows, different ones on different shows, and one specific one I do on every play.

Presenter2:21

Will you tell me what it is? Yeah, I always have to have a shower at half hour call.

Anne-Marie Duff2:21

Yeah.

Presenter2:24

I read that you used different perfumes when you played different perfumes for different parts. Different characters, yeah. Joan of Arc, of course it was one of your tiring performances. What was her perfume? She didn't have one. Because we wanted the notion of her being a pilgrim at the very beginning of the play, so I'd

Anne-Marie Duff2:35

She's a

Presenter2:40

Have to have my feet were filthy like I'd done this huge walk in Pete or something. So I used to have a box of soil, you know, backstage that I would definitely rub on my feet as well as the makeup. And the smell of that always was very strong. Goodness. Anne-Marie Duff, we're going to go to your music. I want you to tell me about this first disc. Why have you chosen it? I was desperately trying to think of something that would connect me to my childhood.

Presenter3:03

And I have Irish parents and I thought at first, oh it'll be something Irish. And then I thought, no, actually, what was my life? My life as a child was the seventies, London.

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There's a real sort of like rainbow of

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Different minorities, people from everywhere else. And that was a very specific feeling in the 70s because you weren't always welcome.

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It was weird as a kid, you know. I had experiences that are probably similar to maybe Muslim kids now put on the radio and hear on talk shows, but people would say, Well, Irish people are terrorists or what have you, you know.

Presenter3:33

My parents, Mary and Brendan, were fantastic dancers and they listened to a lot of reggae. Reggae was massive in the 70s and this particular song is just so makes me think of sunshine and it makes me think of the two of them dancing and them having parties and as soon as you hear the intro to this song you just go off joy.

Speaker 23:55

Rasta Azzi Ramo Ihil

Speaker 23:59

Decide the checkpunning grocery.

Speaker 24:02

I wanna adopt the things I need

Speaker 24:06

The doony done with him safe by little weed Him handban him jar, lad, Redem I an just made it The time is so hard, lad, I mind nothing called immigrate And make up me mine, lad, I might as well go kenze

Presenter4:25

That was Pluto Shevington and that and you said so beautifully there Anne-Marie Duff you evoked this time when you know very particular atmosphere being brought up in a suburb of West London in the seventies and your parents dancing, they were very good dancers. I've read you say before that they had come to the UK because this is your phrase they weren't able to fulfil their dreams. What would they have done?

Speaker 24:37

Yeah.

Presenter4:45

If they hadn't been sort of compromised by

Anne-Marie Duff4:45

Um

Presenter4:48

Well, I think it was more difficult for them to articulate their dreams.

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I know that my mother was a very talented athlete, but that wasn't

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Able to be encouraged for various reasons, you know, I'm not making any judgments on anybody.

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And my dad.

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It was super bright, you know, and very well read. He's still a huge reader, you know, and um Was it a house with lots of books in it? Well, we didn't own a lot of books because it didn't occur to me that you could own books, but we went to the library all the time and we were always borrowing books.

Anne-Marie Duff5:16

And

Presenter5:18

And I still am a real bookworm. And what was your dad's job? He was a painter and decorator. He worked for Fullers Brewery in Chiswick. And would they have taken you to the theatre? No, that wasn't really part of.

Presenter5:29

Well, first of all, it's fantastically expensive to go and see a theatre in London. It is elsewhere too, but in London certainly.

Anne-Marie Duff5:32

Going to the

Presenter5:36

It wasn't something that

Presenter5:37

That would even occur to you as a working class parent, I suspect. You'd have other priorities. Tell me about this second piece of music. Why have you chosen it? Well, first of all, when I was at school, I joined the school choir.

Presenter5:47

And I had a fantastic music teacher called Mr. Vinal. Des Vinyl. I know, Vinyl, brilliant name, for a music teacher.

Anne-Marie Duff5:51

Yeah, yeah.

Presenter5:53

And he had this beautiful choir and I discovered I could sing. I could really sing. And so I found myself a singing teacher in the Yellow Pages and I used my money from my Saturday job to pay for my singing lessons. And her name was Phyllis Roast. I'd never met anyone like her in my life. She was this tiny wee old lady and she taught the Royal College of Music and... And you just found her in the Yellow Pages? Yeah, it was like serendipitous, you know. And she lived in this flat in Ealing that was, you know, there were rugs. There was, and you'd walk in and I'd think, what is that smell? It's perfume and something else. And now, of course, I'm growing up, I realise it was garlic. And I'd never smelled garlic before. But exotic. It was so exotic. And she was everything that I imagined.

Anne-Marie Duff6:16

Yeah.

Anne-Marie Duff6:29

Carling before.

Anne-Marie Duff6:30

It was so exhausting.

Presenter6:34

the world of the theatre or what it would be like.

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Was it this tiny old woman who had this shawl and would

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Properly teach me to sing. It wasn't just show tunes, it was a classical training.

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This song is one of the arias that I worked on with her and she was phenomenal for me. I found it very difficult to get into drama school.

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And so I didn't get in the first time round. I reached a crossroads where I could well, maybe I'll be a singer. Maybe that's what I'll do.

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And we talked about it in great depth. And she just looked at me and she said, I think you have the soul of an actor.

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It was so extraordinary for me, you know, and

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I'll just never forget her little blue eyes and

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How hard I worked with her also cracked my mind open to a whole world of music that I'd never heard before.

Speaker 37:17

Yeah.

Presenter8:21

Qui Il Belsono di Doretta, from La Rondine by Puccini, sung there by Montserrat Caballier, with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Charles Macaris. Anne Marie Duff, your head was bowed throughout it. Where were you?

Presenter8:34

And you know that brilliant lyric, Joni Mitchell lyric, Songs Are Like Tattoos? Yes. And they are, aren't they? I suppose I was thinking about beginnings because it was.

Speaker 38:38

Uh

Presenter8:43

It represented a point of my life where I was absolutely at base camp and everything lay ahead of me and I was swollen with hope and potential and all those amazing things that you see in young people and

Presenter8:56

And I was excited because I guess I knew on a deep level that I would be.

Presenter9:01

Part of that world. This idea of, I quoted you in the beginning there, of course, of it giving you wings, that's a very powerful.

Anne-Marie Duff9:07

That's a

Presenter9:09

Image there, this idea that actually it was through artistic expression, through performance, that you could soar out of, you know, from whence you came. Was there a sense in which you wanted to get out of that, that sort of breeze block, tower block existence your mum and... Of course, I would defy anyone who doesn't grow up in those environments to say that they wouldn't rather be somewhere else. But, you know, you still have it, still who you are, and it's important to keep a hold of it. Just the width of of a wingspan, that's what it's all about too, isn't it?

Anne-Marie Duff9:10

So this

Anne-Marie Duff9:23

Cool.

Presenter9:37

To not get into drama school the first time then must have been at the time for you. Yes, crushing.

Anne-Marie Duff9:39

Man must have

Presenter9:46

But no one in my life involved in that world.

Presenter9:51

And for me it was absolutely about becoming a classical actor, you know, and I had quite a romantic head about it all, really. I wanted to be in the Royal Court in the 60s, that's what I wanted. And my dad was brilliant. I remember him one day putting his arm round me and he used to call me Smudge. And he'd say, Come on, Smudge. You just have to be patient and keep believing and try. What did you do in that year then when you were in? I went off and studied film for a year. Did a bit more.

Anne-Marie Duff10:12

I went off and studied film for a year.

Presenter10:15

Higher education.

Presenter10:17

You've said that you were considered at drama school once you did get in as the runt of the year. What do you mean by that? I wasn't never, ever going to be a leading lady. I would only ever play small parts in dramas. Pretty much. And I I went to a drama school where you were given sort of terms' notice if you were going to be asked to leave at the end of term, quite famously, drama centre.

Anne-Marie Duff10:23

I was reading.

Anne-Marie Duff10:27

Were you told this?

Presenter10:38

And so I was always on a terms warning, always. But the great thing about that was that I wrote a thousand letters in my final year and walked straight into work straight after.

Presenter10:49

Anne Marie Doff, tell me about your next piece. What are we going to hear now? Well, I figure if I'm on a desert island, I want something that has nothing to do with anything other than jumping up and down.

Anne-Marie Duff10:55

Uh

Presenter11:00

And getting my knickers in a twist. There is also nothing sexier than a man with a guitar. It's just true. You give any man a guitar and it's sex appeal. Bomb! It just flies through the roof. So I picked a White Stripes track because they're an amazing band and this was an amazing album and this is so saucy and naughty and all about sex and I'm all for that. So I picked White Stripes Born and Biscuit.

Anne-Marie Duff11:28

It's quite possible that I'm your third man, girl.

Anne-Marie Duff11:33

But it's a fact that I'm a seventh son.

Anne-Marie Duff11:45

Start about.

Anne-Marie Duff11:49

Quite possible that I'm your third man, girl.

Speaker 311:49

What's up?

Anne-Marie Duff11:52

But it's a fact that I'm the seventh son.

Presenter12:00

White stripes, ball and biscuit, all about the sex, as you said, Anne Marie Dev. Something to get your knickers in a twist to on the island. We've mentioned already playing Joan of Arc. There's no way of avoiding it. It is a career defining role. Wow, it was a dream come true. I I literally had dreamt of playing that role in my teens, and then I got a phone call one day.

Speaker 212:04

To have something to get your knickers in a twist to on the island.

Presenter12:18

Had a tiny flat in Finsbury Park and I remember just sitting on the sofa going

Presenter12:21

Yeah, and I literally couldn't speak for about 20 minutes after I got up. I was like, oh my.

Presenter12:27

That was 2007 and I was looking back at some of the reviews. They were uniformly superb. And did you at any time feel weighed down by, you know, Sybil Thorndike or Joan Plyrice or Frances de Latour, who had all done it to great acclaim in the generations that had gone before you? Any play that's not new, there's always ghosts. How do you get rid of the ghosts? Sometimes it's really hard. But I think Marianne had a lot to do with that. The direct had a lot to do with that, making us feel like it was our own fresh new production. So that huge auditorium with all the bums on the seats and all the people that have paid, just take me if you can take yourself back to just standing in the wings on the first night. I felt like I was playing Glastonbury. That's the only way to explain it. I'd never worked in the Olivier before.

Anne-Marie Duff13:05

I felt like I was

Presenter13:10

I've never worked in that size auditorium. I literally fell. I stood there backstage. I remember it so clearly with the soil on my feet.

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Felt like a rock star.

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It's the only way to describe it.

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And I've never had that feeling since. I'd never had my face on a poster like that before.

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I wasn't the person that had sold tickets before. It was a really lovely feeling of devil may care, of going, you know what, give me my guitar. I am out there tonight and I'm going to blow your minds. So it was really fun. Tell me about your fourth. What are we going to hear now?

Presenter13:43

I have picked a Buork track.

Presenter13:47

As a woman I feel like I've sort of grown up with her.

Presenter13:50

You know, I listened to Sugar Cubes when I was a teenager and then her first album came out just as I left drama school.

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I listen to it all the time. It wore the tape out because it's Tape Cause X, that's how old I am. And this particular track really takes me back to a time in my 20s where I went.

Presenter14:04

You know all, Anne-Marie.

Presenter14:06

You've done a lot of thinking about theatre, you've done a lot of being a very good girl. Now, why don't you just go out and have some fun? And it's very specifically of a time when I really let my hair down, did lots of things I shouldn't have done, a good girl should not have done, but I had a really, really great time. It was the mid-90s. It was a fantastically cool time to be here.

Presenter14:26

London was a great place to be and if we went out after shows you would find yourself mixing with Brit artists as they were called or writers, playwrights, you know. Yeah, and it's just sort of about that feeling, a feeling kind of sort of the invincibility of youth, I guess.

Presenter14:49

Sure flash

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Finds me out.

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T sis the crack

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Speak, dance me with

Speaker 315:06

I saw you rainy days.

Speaker 215:10

Uh

Speaker 315:11

Uh

Speaker 215:11

Uh

Speaker 315:11

So we Leave.

Speaker 215:12

Be sir.

Speaker 215:15

Uh

Presenter15:16

That was Bjorg and possibly maybe Anne-Marie Duffy said going into that I did a lot of things a good girl should not have done. You're not going to tell me what they were, are you? No. My mum and dad might be listening.

Speaker 315:22

Hmm.

Speaker 315:24

Hello.

Speaker 315:26

My map

Anne-Marie Duff15:27

It is.

Presenter15:29

You have, as I speak to you, a sort of lightness of spirit, which I wasn't necessarily expecting, having watched so many of the things you play these anguished parts so often. And I'm thinking now of the suicidal Nora in Ibsen's A Doll's House. You played that in 2001 on stage, and by all accounts, from what I've read, the lines became sort of blurred. There was a point at which you did you walk off stage? Yeah, I had a stage for it. I had this experience where I

Anne-Marie Duff15:49

There was a there was a

Anne-Marie Duff15:52

Yeah.

Presenter15:56

became very aware that I was unhealthily pushing myself into the character's noggin. Like, you know, those trombone shots in movies. It was like this moment where the whole stage my perspective completely shifted and I actually had the sentence in my head

Presenter16:11

I don't want to be a crazy person and I'm definitely not going to be a crazy actress.

Presenter16:15

So I walked off stage and Patterson Joseph, I thank him for my whole career really, because that's a long time ago.

Presenter16:22

And he looked at me and he said exactly the right thing, he put his hands on my shoulders and he said, Anne-Ree, there are 250 people out there who've paid a lot of money for their tickets.

Presenter16:31

He just absolutely at that moment needed to hear something tangible and practical and kind.

Presenter16:37

And so I turned round and walked back on stage and there's a famous scene in Dollshouse where Nora eats lots of macaroons and I just lied and said to the audience, I'm so sorry, ladies and gentlemen, I choked on one of the macaroons. Then we carried on the rest of the show and I stayed being an actor. But it was a real wake up call.

Presenter16:54

Can I ask you about playing that part in Shameless? Because it was a series that burst onto the screen on Channel Four. You only did two series. Why did you walk out of something that was such a huge I mean it continued to be a success after you left, but why did you leave?

Anne-Marie Duff17:04

Soft.

Presenter17:06

Well, I felt that I'd played Fiona, and that can be the difficult thing with long running series, you know, you I just felt that I'd

Presenter17:12

I visited as much of her as I without revisiting. And that's the thing, you're always hungry to do new things and try new things. And so that was it for me, really. I'd sort of lived with her for long enough, I guess. I wonder, as I listen to you talk about the characters who've been through extreme things that you play so convincingly and well in this word anguish that comes up so often in reviews and characterizations of your work what's been the moment in your own life which has been toughest for you to date off stage? I've been through a lot, certainly the last few years. It's been all over the papers what I've been through in the last few years, you know, so.

Presenter17:45

It's about doing the best that you can and I'm really interested in several things. One is the fact that we as a species get our faces out of the dirt and try to feel the sun on them.

Presenter17:56

And as a person I try to do that. I go, okay.

Presenter18:00

This is awful. I feel like I may die. However, I won't.

Presenter18:04

Because there is more of me than I

Presenter18:07

Ever imagined that could be.

Presenter18:09

Because I look at what

Presenter18:12

People go through in other scenarios that are much harder than mine or.

Presenter18:17

What are you gonna do?

Presenter18:19

Get your face out of the dirt and try to feel the sun on it, you know. And so tell me then about this next piece of music. I am a hopeless romantic, you know, I am.

Presenter18:28

And that means, as we just said, sometimes I'll burn with pain, as well as burn with desire. I will.

Presenter18:34

'Cause that's the nature of opening your heart up to someone else. But I refuse to believe that there's a scarcity. I I absolutely believe that there is love and more love.

Presenter18:47

Nick Cave's another one of those artists that I have such a crush on, I'm such a crush on.

Presenter18:51

And I chose this'cause it's a really beautiful, simple

Presenter18:54

Love Song That Is About

Presenter18:57

That tipping point at which you fear you may lose love.

Presenter19:01

And this sounds ironic, of course, but sometimes in a marriage you are never closer than the moment at which the two of you decide it's time to finish.

Presenter19:09

There is such pure intimacy in that moment and honesty and truth and

Presenter19:15

kindness in all its many versions.

Presenter19:20

So yeah, I suppose I picked this song because it tells me, yeah, I can love and I can hurt.

Presenter19:26

But I can love again.

Anne-Marie Duff19:28

I hold this letter in my hand.

Anne-Marie Duff19:33

Petitioner

Presenter19:34

Come on.

Anne-Marie Duff19:34

Uh

Presenter19:34

And pray.

Speaker 219:37

Oh b

Presenter19:37

Uh

Speaker 219:37

Just as I am planning, losing her again is more than I can bear.

Presenter19:37

Just as I am planning

Speaker 219:45

It's the cold white and blue

Speaker 219:49

Uh

Presenter19:49

Press my lips against her name 200 a word

Speaker 319:54

But we live in hope.

Speaker 319:57

The sky hangs heavy with rain

Presenter20:00

That was Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and Love Letter. You said just as you were explaining your reasons for choosing that, Anne Marie Duff, you talked about it's been all over the papers, and of course most people will know that for just about a decade you were married to another very well known actor, James McAvoy. What about that press scrutiny? How do you deal with that kind of scrutiny of things that are private?

Speaker 320:00

That was a

Presenter20:20

There's no escape in as much as you're going through something, you can't leave it at home. You can't go to work and forget about it because everybody at work knows what you're holding hands with. And in that way, it was tricky and also protecting my son from anything like that. Luckily enough, he was young enough for that not to be an issue. You once said, you know, I'm either sort of having a nervous breakdown on a council estate or I'm I'm in a corset dying. Are you offered enough diversity of parts? I'm so lucky. Oh my god. Touching wounds as I say that. I'm one of the few actors who gets offered such different works.

Presenter20:54

Even just in medium terms, I get to do T V, film and theatre. Not all actors get to do that.

Presenter20:59

One minute I was on Broadway playing Lady M. Literally the project after that I was p in suffragette playing a working class women's rights activist. And I don't know karmically what I did in a previous life, but I'm really grateful for it. Yeah, it was a good girl.

Anne-Marie Duff21:10

Yeah.

Presenter21:13

Let's have some more music. We're on your sixth. Tell me about this then, Anne-Marie Duff. I have an eight-year-old curly-haired boy who is so cool. Both James and I just look at each other and we're just bemused. Where did he get his call from? You could cut him in half, and the words rock and roll would literally be written through him. He loves music so much.

Presenter21:34

And so I had to pick something that was one of our songs, and we had a very big discussion about it because he took it really seriously because he's very serious about his music. It's good. And he loves this song, and it really makes me think of going to school in the morning, him in the back, and him not knowing that I'm having a sneaky peek in my rear view. Him really enjoying listening, and he's in some space. I don't know whether he's playing Glastonbury, but he's in some space. So, this is Gorilla's Glint Eastwood, just for him, because he rocks.

Speaker 322:08

I ain't happy, I'm feeling glad I got sunshine In a bag I'm useless, for not for long the future is coming on I ain't happy, I'm feeling glad I got sunshine In a bag I'm useless, for not for long the future is coming on, it's coming on, it's coming on

Presenter22:34

Alright.

Presenter22:35

Gorillas and Clint Eastwood. As you look at the landscape within your industry and I and I've asked it of other actors that I've spoken to recently and directors post Harvey Weinstein allegations, allegations of non-consensual sex, which he of course denies, but for those of us on the outside, it's easy to imagine that there seems to be something really stinking and rotten at the heart of certainly Hollywood.

Presenter23:01

I suspect that you could lift the rock of a lot of industries and find lots of things crawling underneath. But yeah, it's not that. So you think it's only interesting is because it's about very glamorous multi-millionaires? That has a huge ripple effect. Right. Because if they the people who other people see as having everything have been through things, it makes them maybe feel capable of speaking up themselves. It's very hard to be a whistleblower. It's terrifying, you know, the implications of that.

Anne-Marie Duff23:06

Yeah, it's not a problem.

Anne-Marie Duff23:10

I think it's not

Presenter23:28

So as a young actress, I just come back to what it was I was thinking about asking, as a young actress, I presume then you probably were in situations where people said, well, you know, it would be better if our bum was more like this, or could you just pop your top off, or all that sort of stuff? Of course, yeah, I won't lie. I I have had quite a few experiences in my early career that would t curl your toes. This is what's been fascinating.

Anne-Marie Duff23:39

Cup your top off or all that sort of stuff.

Presenter23:49

Is that we've been talking about them now, myself and my colleagues, my peers, and we hadn't spoken about them before. Yes. That's what's been extraordinary, is just this realization that it wasn't just you, because quite often you think, oh God, was it me? Was it me? Did I do something? Was I complicit in some way? And also that there's a vast number of people who've had similar experiences. It's just that, isn't it the quantity which has been so extraordinary. Knowing what you know about your industry.

Presenter24:18

If you had a daughter and she said to you at thirteen, fourteen, Mum, you know, I really.

Anne-Marie Duff24:19

Yeah.

Presenter24:23

I'd love to be an actress. What would you say to her about your industry? Would you trust her to your industry right now?

Presenter24:29

I think more

Presenter24:35

Oh, it's hard to know, isn't it?

Presenter24:40

I would have the conversation with my child.

Presenter24:45

And say

Presenter24:46

You are your most precious thing, and you have to take care of yourself and know that.

Presenter24:53

The only people who get to share your preciousness are the people you choose.

Presenter24:57

You have a right to say no. If something makes you feeling uncomfortable in any situation in your life, you say no because nothing is worth.

Presenter25:05

The betrayal of a yes. But it's interesting that you had to think hard there about that. I mean, given how much you've gotten still.

Anne-Marie Duff25:10

Yeah.

Presenter25:12

On the balance, on the weight, you had to think: if I had a daughter, what would I say to her?

Anne-Marie Duff25:16

But what would I say?

Presenter25:17

This is an important conversation that we're having at the moment, isn't it? I can't be flippant about it, you know, in that way. Let's take a break, Anne Rita. We're going to have some more of your music, and we're on your seventh. I picked this beautiful song, Alison, by Elvis Costello, because a few years ago, I sadly lost one of my very close friends, Ali. And we had joked once about having songs with our names in them, and she used to say, I will always out-cool you all because I have Alison by Elvis Costello. And she died very suddenly, and it was a real shock to all of us who loved her. Love her. And she sewed me into my wedding dress. And my little boy wasn't very well when he was first born. And she was the person who was on the phone three, four times a day. And we got digs together, you know, when we were on tour. Allie was the wardrobe supervisor. And we just laughed all the time. She just was extraordinary. And I find as time goes by, I think about her more and more. Grief is an interesting thing, you know, because it comes visiting when it wants. It's servant to no man, you know, and it's absolutely

Presenter26:29

Forces you to confront.

Presenter26:32

Its presence.

Presenter26:34

I am here. You will deal with me now. And I find that

Presenter26:38

The gentle grieving of her.

Presenter26:41

is something that I just carry with me.

Speaker 326:46

Oh, it's so funny to be seeing you

Presenter26:48

After so long girl, and with the way you look I understand that you were not impressed

Presenter26:57

But I heard you let that little friend of mine

Presenter27:03

Take off your party dress

Presenter27:08

I'm not Go. Wanna get to a sentimental like those other stick

Presenter27:16

Alex Elvis Costello and Alison. I've looked through lots of reviews, Anne Marie Duff. Oh, I never do. Do you never? No way, Joseph. Your reviews, actually. Lots of your own. Yeah, very few of those. You know, sometimes, of course, reviewers don't like the production. They never.

Anne-Marie Duff27:21

What?

Anne-Marie Duff27:22

Do you never?

Anne-Marie Duff27:24

Your reviews actually

Anne-Marie Duff27:26

I'll tell you right.

Speaker 327:26

Yeah.

Speaker 227:27

Uh

Speaker 327:27

Yeah, it might be those

Presenter27:32

Don't like you though. Do you know when you're in a production that's not going down well? Do you? Sometimes you do, and sometimes you think. I thought this was quite good, this show.

Presenter27:41

Even though I don't read them, you get a sense of the way other people are. Sure. The way they carry themselves. If th they think, Oh, your confidence has dipped. Oh, maybe we've had some bad reviews or you've had a bad review.'Cause I don't read them because I always say they're like reading somebody else's diary. You won't stop until you find something bad about yourself.

Presenter27:57

When you go to the theatre, are you able or do you go to the theatre? Are you able to go and abandon yourself and just watch it as a viewer? Or are you kind of always just thinking, Oh, they did that? No, mostly mostly I can look there's this brilliant quote Michael Gamble once said in an interview, it's really made me laugh.

Anne-Marie Duff28:01

Are you able to

Anne-Marie Duff28:06

Alright.

Presenter28:12

You don't see pilots going to the airport to watch each other take

Presenter28:18

Which I love. But I'm the absolute opposite. I love going to the theatre. I love to be inspired by other people and

Presenter28:25

When something's great, it's just, oh, there's nothing like it, you know, and

Presenter28:30

You have great feats of imagination, obviously, and Marie Duff. Have you imagined yourself on this island? Have you thought about what it would be like to wake up and be there alone? I'd be miserable. Would you? Yeah. I like a bit of solitude, but I really do need company.

Presenter28:46

conversation and it's interesting all of the pieces of music I chose have been all songs which surprised me but

Anne-Marie Duff28:50

Mm, what

Presenter28:52

I need words in my life. I talk to myself all the time if I was alone. I mean, I do walking around the supermarket, but

Presenter28:59

If I was on an island I just would. I'd talk to myself all the time. Because if you take away all that we have, our clothes, our money, every single thing that we own, all we have are our words. Those are the gifts we give each other, you know, and

Presenter29:12

I don't know where I'd be without a good old chat with someone.

Presenter29:15

Tell me about your eighth disc. I

Presenter29:18

I'm Irish and I'm very proud of my heritage. My mother's from Johnny Gaulle and my dad is from Meath, but they met in Shepherdsbush in the sixties. A lot of Irish people did. And my heritage has afforded me so many gifts. And it's meant I've got to spend a lot of time in Ireland, which I love, and that's something I share with my son.

Presenter29:39

One of the things I adore about that culture, and it could be said about Scottish culture too, but is the notion of standing up in a group of people and singing. And there is something so fantastic about hearing an unaccompanied voice.

Presenter29:56

Sing a song

Presenter29:57

And generally it'll be it'll be a story song.

Presenter30:00

And it has oh

Presenter30:03

The effect of

Presenter30:05

alarming all my nerve endings, you know, and I find it

Presenter30:09

Really exciting. And I guess it's theatre. That's the point. It's theatre, isn't it? Song I Love This Singer, Declan I wrote.

Presenter30:16

He's an Irish singer and this is his own composition, but it sounds like a a traditional ballad.

Presenter30:21

It's about this woman who's been widowed by the sea, you know, she's lost husbands and a young man courting her.

Presenter30:29

and asking her to be his wife. And she says, I can't, I can't. So it's just sort of linked to all of those things for me.

Speaker 330:35

Well I stood before the ocean

Speaker 330:41

In the middle of the night

Speaker 330:45

Cause I loved her so I asked her then if she would be my wife.

Speaker 330:55

And then I closed my eyes and waited

Speaker 331:01

And I listen for an answer

Presenter31:06

That was Declan O'Rourke singing Marrying the Sea. Um, Anne Marie, it's time, of course, for me to give you some books. You get the Bible, you get the complete works of Shakespeare, you get to take one other book along. This has been really hard because I'm a bookworm. I got it down to three. So I got my Angelie Phenomenal Woman.

Presenter31:24

Also collected poems Emily Dickinson.

Presenter31:27

And then finally it was Men on the Floss, George Eliot.

Presenter31:31

As much as I love poetry.

Presenter31:33

I'm going to go with The Men on the Frost. Okay. And it's so pertinent. You know, it's about a young woman craving education and the opportunity to love as she pleases.

Presenter31:45

But also it's just so beautifully written and I worked on a stage adaptation of it when I was twenty-five.

Presenter31:51

And uh it was a glorious time for me.

Presenter31:54

But mostly just because it's the most extraordinary novel.

Presenter31:58

It's yours. Tell me.

Presenter32:00

A little luxury, or indeed a big one.

Presenter32:03

Now again, I have two choices being a typical Libra and I find it very hard to decide something.

Anne-Marie Duff32:07

The thing

Presenter32:08

So I'm learning to play the flute so mmm. I thought would I take my flute and give me something to do? But if I'm being really honest, my absolute luxury.

Presenter32:17

Would be

Presenter32:20

I'm slightly embarrassed to say it, but would be beautiful underwear.

Presenter32:24

As an actor, most of the time you have to dress like an unmade bed because you're going to rehearsals and God knows what you'll be doing. But underneath all of that, I always have lovely underwear. And he thought, do you know what, if I was stuck on island

Presenter32:38

How glorious would it be And nobody would be around to see it. I could run around in the most divine bra pants.

Presenter32:47

And feel like a million dollars. And if it is a luxury, if we're going to say it has to be a luxury, then that's a proper luxury.

Presenter32:54

It certainly is, and it is yours. Which of these discs would you save?

Speaker 232:54

Push.

Anne-Marie Duff32:55

Tap

Speaker 232:55

It is yours.

Anne-Marie Duff32:56

Uh

Presenter32:59

Very difficult. I am going to go with

Presenter33:06

Unit Cave and the Bad Seeds. I'm going to go with Love Letter, because at the end of everything love is the answer. So I'm going to go with a Love Song. It's yours, Emma Reeduff. Thank you very much for letting us hear your Desert Island Discs. Thank you very much for asking me.

Presenter33:43

I hope you enjoyed this edition of Desert Island Discs with Anne-Marie Duff. You'll find more interviews with actors like Dame Judy Dench and Hugh Bonneville, sports stars, scientists, musicians and artists, at bbc.co.uk slash desert island discs.

Speaker 234:10

Yeah.

Anne-Marie Duff34:10

This is the BBC

Speaker 234:11

See.

Anne-Marie Duff34:14

Hello there, we hope you enjoyed that podcast, but as Lieutenant Colombo so presciently put it, there's just one more thing. Why not consider listening to the Now Show as part of the Friday night comedy from the BBC? No, I'm sure Colombo never said that. Then he was missing out, wasn't he? It's the topical comedy show hosted by us, Puns and Dennis. All you have to do is find us wherever you get your podcasts and make sure you subscribe.