Miranda Richardson on why talking about sexual harassment is long overdue, "ghastly" social media β and the childhood moment that informed the rest of her life. I was very dreamy at school. I spent a lot of time staring out of the window, watching the birds. There was a small handful of people I wanted to hang around with. I felt oppressed by crowds. I had good ideas. I would form clubs and people would turn up. And people would say, so what do we do?
I suppose I should give my younger self a pat on the back for having any kind of career, albeit an occasional career, at all. I did the odd school play. I joined the local am dram society. I had elocution lessons. It felt like a vocation. And then there were a few stand-out moments. Leaving home to live in digs while I travelled around doing rep theatres, that felt like a big leap into independence. I feel incredibly privileged to have been able to buy my own house.
And I do enjoy it. And friends who are going to make the distance. I need the human voice. I would say to my younger self, impose on your friends. Yes, you will test the strength of the friendship, but⦠just ask for help more. Am I an idiot? What use am I? But we are. And there are some very ugly things on the middle of it. Personally, nothing bad happened to me. Or perhaps the intelligence came rocketing off me and they were just cowed by me. No one came on to me! Maybe there was nothing worth coming on to.
But really, I tell myself, just be grateful. Or get any instruction or advice, even just so I could reject it. I think he wanted a cricket team. I remember being dragged to a football game when I was five. My mother was rather independent. She taught us that very early on. Someone said to me, when it comes to thinking about dying, you should live either as if you had all the time in the world, or no time left at all.
As I get older I appreciate anything that keeps me in the moment. Body maintenance is so tiring. With the face, I think the main trick is not to look miserable. The trolling is just ghastly. I used to get a lot of nasty little letters from some person who was clearly fucked up in the brain. If I could go back to any time β there was a moment when I was 11 that did inform the rest of my life.
