Shirley Henderson interview: A class act

Published on Friday 5 June 2009 16:10

AYRSHIRE Butlins' loss is our gain. The actress Shirley Henderson began her performing career as an enthusiastic teenage singer, belting out Barbra Streisand numbers at the west of Scotland holiday camp. But she has come a long way since swapping Butlins for Baftas.

The 43-year-old, who grew up in Kincardine, is now hailed as one of the finest Scottish actresses of her generation. Her friend and fellow Trainspotting star Kelly Macdonald is her only possible rival. Henderson, gifted with an extraordinarily striking and flexible voice, is simply mesmerising on screen – one critic has even dubbed her "the new Audrey Hepburn".

But she doesn't go for obvious glamour-puss roles – she's far too interesting for that. With typical modesty, Henderson says: "I never get the tall, blonde, glamorous roles because I'm not tall, blonde and glamorous. I'm more the wee, disturbing characters because of the way I look or sound."

Above all, what astonishes is Henderson's sheer versatility. She has portrayed everything from a kvetching apparition haunting a boarding school's lavatories (Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets and Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire), a precious Portuguese queen (Charles II: The Power And The Passion), a feisty, ambitious MP (The Taming Of The Shrew) and a Mancunian rock chick (24 Hour Party People), to a hedonistic London hairdresser (Wonderland), a Chardonnay-chugging, man-despising singleton (Bridget Jones's Diary), a highly strung Victorian soprano (Topsy Turvy), a daughter launched on the matrimonial market by her fraudulent financier father (The Way We Live Now), and a profoundly dysfunctional Dubliner with an unsightly moustache (Intermission).

With a spookiness that would not look out of place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Henderson never seems to put a foot wrong on screen. For instance, she gave a well-nigh faultless display as a woman obsessed by the mysterious disappearance of her sister in Frozen, with the performance winning her the best actress gong at the Bafta Scotland Awards in 2005.

In her latest offering, Henderson adds yet another string to her bow. In May Contain Nuts, an engaging new three-part comedy drama which begins on ITV1 this Thursday, Henderson plays a thirtysomething mother compelled to impersonate her 11-year-old daughter. Here's why.

When Alice (Henderson) moves into an aspirational, gated community in south London, she is immediately brainwashed by a hit squad of local yummy mummies into adhering to their snooty, middle-class mantras. Alice's overbearing neighbour, Ffion (a delicious display of imperious snobbery by Elizabeth Berrington), convinces Alice that sending her daughter Molly (Bebe Cave) to the local state secondary school, Clapham Comprehensive, rather than Chelsea College, the fancy private school down the road, is tantamount to child abuse.

Alice is scared out of her wits by Ffion's doomsday vision of life at the comp. She starts to imagine that the only career option open to Molly will be prostitution – "I'd like you to meet Sergei, my pimp. Sergei has offered to look after my finances and just pay me in low-grade heroin." So Alice does what she thinks any right-thinking parent would do: to ensure her child gets into Chelsea College, she dresses up as Molly and takes the exam for her. She justifies the deceit to her husband David (Darren Boyd) by declaring that, "all's fair in love, war and secondary transfer". When he says she's mad, Alice ripostes: "I'm a parent."

Based on the bestseller by John O'Farrell, May Contain Nuts delivers an object lesson about the dangers of becoming a "helicopter parent". It warns us against turning into those mothers and fathers who are constantly swooping down and trying to improve their little darlings "for their own good".

Henderson, who is 5ft nothing and makes a very convincing schoolgirl, reveals that she was immediately drawn to the theme of May Contain Nuts. "I loved the idea of the extreme lengths to which parents will go for their children. You get so desperate on their behalf that you'll do literally anything for them."

The actress believes that the concept of trying to keep up with the Joneses should also resonate. "It's such a stress always trying to get bigger houses and larger cars and better schools. Of course, parents want to give their children the best opportunities in life, but sometimes that can stifle them. There is such pressure on kids these days to be the best at everything.

"Children don't just play any more – they're far too busy learning to fence and taking extra French classes. In the end, you're actually doing more damage to your children by trying to hot-house them. It's far better to remain a calm parent."

She adds that, "nowadays it seems to be your unit against everyone else. In the past, we were more of a community. We'd say, 'if someone hasn't got something, let's try and make it better for them.'" For all that, Henderson says she can absolutely relate to Alice. "I can really identify with her. I don't have children, but we all want to protect whatever we love in life."

The actress comes from a working-class background in Fife – her father worked in the local power station, her mother in a pub. There was no tradition of acting in her family. But as a young girl, Henderson, who has two sisters and a brother, discovered a talent for performing by crooning at weddings and local events – as a 13-year-old she sang between bouts at boxing tournaments.

Bitten by the showbiz bug, she took a year-long drama course at college in Kirkcaldy (a course which Ewan McGregor also attended), before winning a place at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. Before you could say "big break", Henderson was appearing at the National Theatre and opposite Robert Carlyle (subsequently, a frequent co-star) in BBC1's Hamish Macbeth.

Although she now has producers beating a path to her door, Henderson remains down to her earth about her career. This self-effacing actress – who cites the unhip Colombo star Peter Falk as her inspiration – is never going to be seduced by the fake allure of the celebrity magazine "at home" photo shoot.

The actress, who jealously guards her privacy, says she likes nothing better than pottering around her Dunfermline home. "I cringe at the very idea of premieres," Henderson winces. "I hate all that. It's like you're promoting yourself – 'look at me, look at me.' If you go in for that, you automatically hand over your private life, and to me that's sacred.

"I want to dress how I want to dress – not like everyone else. You don't have to parade up and down a red carpet to get respect – you can do it your own way. You can see why some people get caught up in that celebrity game, but it's not something I envisage happening in my life."

Henderson is currently making Life During Wartime, the new Todd Solondz picture in which she stars alongside Charlotte Rampling and Allison Janney (aka, CJ from The West Wing). She is also working on Seven Days, a new film directed by Michael Winterbottom, another regular collaborator. Shot over five years in order to portray the ageing process authentically, the film traces the relationship between a man jailed for drug trafficking (John Simm) and his long-suffering wife (Henderson) who continues to visit him in prison.

But for the time being, the actress is keen to focus on May Contain Nuts. She hopes the drama might "help us to laugh at ourselves. It takes a very serious subject – the upbringing of children – and allows us to see the ridiculous in it. It shows that we don't need to have sleepless nights by taking everything too seriously. We can't always see what we're like – sometimes we need drama to point that out to us."

Finally, did Henderson ever ask her mum to help her out with her exams? "No," the actress laughs. "She was too busy looking after us! Sadly, no one dressed up as me and did my exams for me. I wish, I wish!"

• May Contain Nuts starts on ITV1, Thursday, 9pm