Monica Dolan is a Bafta-winning actor and writer. Born in Middlesbrough, her roles include Jeremy Thorpe’s wife in A Very English Scandal (2018), and the serial killer Rosemary West in Appropriate Adult (2011). She starred in all three series of the BBC comedy W1A, and wrote and performed a one-woman play, The B*easts, at the 2017 Edinburgh festival. She is currently starring in All About Eve at London’s Noël Coward theatre, about a ferociously ambitious young actress, Eve, snapping at the heels of older star Margo; Dolan has just been nominated for an Olivier award for her performance as Margo’s straight-talking friend Karen.
What does All About Eve say to you about female rivalry and ambition?
When your ambition depends on someone else’s approval, that can be a dangerous thing. You can see this idea in [the film] The Favourite too. We have to be careful not to talk about women too generally but, in this world, part of your currency is your looks and your youth, so these things become important to women. The celebrity world is very much run by men. Success depends on the audience but also on what these men think the audience values.
Do you see a lot of ageism in the industry?
I’m sure I have lost some jobs because of my looks and age but I’m sure I’ve got some jobs because of them. My career doesn’t depend on these things. I’m not saying I look like a box of frogs, but it’s not something I accentuate. What I can say is that when I was 35, I was playing people who were 50.
What do you think of celebrity culture now compared to the time in which All About Eve was written (first as a short story in 1946, then a film in 1950)?
It is absolutely undeniable that Margo and Eve are talented. Nowadays the ways in which we can become celebrities are more varied, but sometimes it’s more about having a bum big enough to balance a champagne bottle on than what you can actually do.
You did a very good Welsh accent in W1A and in this play your character is American. What are the difficulties of putting on accents?
I’ve had a few people being surprised that I’m not Welsh. Sometimes, directors don’t want to cast me when they realise I’m not Welsh. I feel like telling them that I’m also not [my on-screen role] a senior communications officer at the BBC!
You played Rosemary West in a TV drama. How do you gear up to play a bad or “evil” character?
It’s always a bit frightening. With Rose West, I had a long time to prepare before the filming started, so I went to meet Brian Masters, who wrote a book on her [She Must Have Known], and he put me in touch with her solicitor. I got a transcript of the trial and I remember a lot of mornings making a pot of coffee and reading all this material. Friends would ask me about my research but the colour would drain from their faces when I began to tell them. They didn’t really want to know, because it’s really hard stuff. A useful way to approach character is to consider their morality to be a part of their character. You look at what they’re trying to achieve that way rather than saying to the audience with one part of yourself: “I don’t really agree with this.”
Who were the performers you admired most growing up?
Victoria Wood, Joyce Grenfell, Peter Ustinov, Dave Allen. I have been told off by journalists asking this question in the past. They say: “You haven’t said many female ones.” But there weren’t that many when I was growing up. Anyway, it’s not really about being a man or a woman, but about human connection and storytelling.
Your family was all into the sciences, but you ended up in the arts...
One of my sisters actually studied English at university, but the rest of them were into science and maths. My mum did botany and biochemistry and was a research worker at the Brompton Hospital, and then a teacher. My other sister was a mathematician and my dad and brother both engineers. I was the youngest so perhaps I didn’t want to compete with them academically, and I got bitten early by acting in school plays. My parents were both extraordinarily supportive. I remember they practised the drive twice to the theatre where I was to audition for a council grant for drama school, so that there was no chance of me being late!
Are you affected by what the critics write about you?
I never read reviews. I read my last one when I was 25, when I was playing Princess Katharine of France in Henry V. The review said that I was “kittenish”, and that’s all I could think of after reading it. It really affected the performance. Now I might read them at the end of a run, if I can still be bothered. But what I go by is audience response.
Your parents were Irish. Has this part of your identity become more meaningful in the shadow of Brexit?
I was in shock the day after the referendum. I went to an audition and the guy behind the camera had Italian heritage, the casting director had German heritage. I applied for my Irish passport on the same day, because I wanted to be part of the European industry. Growing up, I had always wanted an Irish passport but my parents had moved to this country and they thought we could only have one or the other. When I had just my British passport, I wasn’t acknowledging the Irish side of myself.
You wrote a one-woman play, B*easts, about the sexualisation of children, and premiered it at the Edinburgh festival fringe in 2017. What led you to write it – and are you working on another?
I had wanted to do something that was storytelling for a long time. I’d seen Peter Ustinov on stage telling stories to the audience and was absolutely gripped. But I was beginning to get annoyed with myself – I thought: “I can’t keep saying it.” Then I had this idea and thought that if I didn’t tell the story, someone else would. I’ve got a lot of ideas written down that I could write next. It’s like planting seeds. It’s a matter of which one pops up.
All About Eve is playing at London’s Nöel Coward theatre until 11 May