{"id":583654,"date":"2026-08-29T04:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T04:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/583654\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T04:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T04:00:09","slug":"queen-of-parts-an-audience-with-imelda-staunton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/583654\/","title":{"rendered":"Queen of Parts: An audience with Imelda Staunton"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s 8.30am in London and the temperature is already in the low 20s headed for the mid-30s. Dame Imelda Staunton has been out for a walk in her leafy West Hampstead neighbourhood in the relative cool of 5.30am, she says, before the day\u2019s heatwave kicks in.<\/p>\n

\n She and husband
\n Jim Carter \u2013 the actor also known as butler Mr Carson of Downton Abbey \u2013 have been doing their best to keep their garden alive, despite a hose ban. They\u2019ve already changed part of it so it requires less hydration, she says via Zoom. \u201cWe\u2019ve done a bit more of a dry garden. Because let\u2019s face it, it\u2019s the way things are going.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

They like their gardening. Search for event photos of the pair together, and there\u2019s as many of them at openings of the Chelsea Flower Show as there are of them on premiere red carpets.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s slightly disarming to see Imelda Staunton in her natural environment, her impish face under a head of untamed curls that must have challenged the make-up department of The Crown when she played Queen Elizabeth of the 1990s and early 2000s. This year marks not only Staunton\u2019s 70th birthday but the 50th anniversary of her professional acting career, one which has seen her continue to tread the boards even as her screen profile grew. Her best-known movie roles have included her 2004 Oscar-nominated, Bafta-winning role in Vera Drake and her scene-stealing turn as Dolores Umbridge, one of the most memorable villains in the Harry Potter films.<\/p>\n

The reason for our chat is Staunton\u2019s latest movie, & Sons. She plays the former wife of Bill Nighy\u2019s character, AN Dyer, a self-centred, reclusive alcoholic writer who has maintained a JD Salinger-like literary stardom care of his one great book. Readers of David Gilbert\u2019s 2013 novel upon which the movie is based will know there\u2019s a twist involving Andy, the youngest of Dyer\u2019s three sons \u2013 the one who wasn\u2019t born to Staunton\u2019s Isabel and who lives with his father.<\/p>\n

\"ImeldaImelda Staunton and Bill Nighy in & Sons. Photo \/ Supplied.<\/p>\n

Staunton doesn\u2019t have a lot of screen time in the movie, which shifts the book\u2019s New York setting to Britain. But it wouldn\u2019t be quite the same film without her. Her performance drives two of the film\u2019s most emotional, pivotal scenes. One is opposite Nighy\u2019s Dyer as he pleads for forgiveness for his failings, the other is with young Andy (Noah Jupe from Hamnet), in which Isabel sees something in the young man that disturbs her in an inexplicable way.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s definitely among the stranger films of Staunton\u2019s career.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I loved it because it was weird and that\u2019s why I wanted to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

What was her reaction when she read the twist in the script?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was, \u2018Oh my god! Really? Okay, That\u2019s a new one on me. We\u2019ll have to go down that rabbit hole then.\u2019 Because with those things, of course, you have to make it totally believable and if it\u2019s ridiculous, if it\u2019s absurd, if it\u2019s weird, your character has to take it for what it is. So I, the actor, can\u2019t comment on that. The character\u2019s got to react in a way that I think any of us would react.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut like any of those things \u2013 even doing Harry Potter when you\u2019re acting with a tennis ball on a pole \u2013 you are reacting in a totally real way. So that\u2019s what the gig is. You have to make the audience believe that you believe this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Staunton has known Nighy for decades and has worked with him before.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s just the bee\u2019s knees, isn\u2019t he? So, any opportunity to work with him \u2026 and we get on. We\u2019re both fairly easy-going people, and we do the homework, and you just sort of get on with it and have a nice time in between the takes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not counting being the voice of Aunt Lucy in Paddington in Peru, & Sons is one of her first films since The Crown. She was in the role when the Queen died in 2022. What was her overriding memory of her time on the series?<\/p>\n

\u201cI was surprised by how much I loved being her because of her qualities \u2026 her steadfastness, her constancy, her clarity, her loyalty, and all these things which I think have sort of completely disappeared in society. People don\u2019t stay in jobs for long. People go, \u2018I\u2019m a bit tired. I can\u2019t do it.\u2019 She didn\u2019t miss a day and, in a way, in my tiny, tiny way, if I say I\u2019m going to do a show, I do a show. And I think the younger generation, unfortunately, they haven\u2019t had the time that I had, and Bill had, doing theatre when you were young and building up the muscle. Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, we were all doing all this theatre year after year in repertory all over the country, rehearsing one play in the day, doing another one at night, year after year. Now it\u2019s unheard of.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the Queen had great resilience, and goodness knows she had to have.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ImeldaImelda Staunton poses with her husband Jim Carter and daughter Bessie Carter after being made a Dame Commander of the British Empire following an Investiture ceremony at Windsor Castle in Windsor in 2024. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

When Staunton was made a dame in 2024, she went to Windsor Castle to receive the honour from Prince William. Though she got her OBE (in 2006) and her CBE (in 2016) at Buckingham Palace from the woman she was to play.<\/p>\n

Did her daily rate go up when she became a dame?<\/p>\n

\u201cMan, I wish.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s it good for then?<\/p>\n

\u201cMy point exactly. Has my life changed? No. Are people treating me differently? No. I suppose it\u2019s very nice recognition for my work and also the charity stuff that I do with Jim, my husband. It\u2019s a very nice pat on the back, and I\u2019m very grateful for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s been another Imelda Staunton that only UK theatre goers have been able to see: the West End star of many musicals and plays. Last year, she played the title role in George Bernard Shaw\u2019s Mrs Warren\u2019s Profession in a three-month production also starring her daughter, Bessie Carter (recently seen playing Nancy Mitford in the television series Outrageous). <\/p>\n

The year before, Staunton led a 10-week revival of Hello Dolly, the production having been delayed due to the pandemic. It won her an Olivier award for Best Actress in a Musical.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was just a bit of a sugary musical, but I\u2019ve never enjoyed doing something more \u2026 the feeling of joy in the audience. I have never experienced anything like it. So that was a pretty good vitamin B12 shot that I got for a few months. It was like a release for the audience. I felt like I was part of the medical profession, providing vitamin L and vitamin J for love and joy.\u201d<\/p>\n

But this year, she has had her first summer off in 15 years and she\u2019s enjoying the break of \u201cnot having to live like a nun\u201d when she\u2019s on an extended theatre season. She did a small film in Ireland \u2013 her parents\u2019 birthplace \u2013 in June, playing a character called Bridie, which was her mother\u2019s name. Other than that, there\u2019s a garden to tend.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do think about what I want to do and, more importantly, what I don\u2019t want to do. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I\u2019m doing that more and more. I\u2019m just doing smaller things at the moment because I\u2019ve given it a lot of welly for quite a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

& Sons is in cinemas now.<\/p>\n

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