Actress Joanna Page

WELSH actress Joanna Page, 46, is best known as Stacey in the hit BBC comedy Gavin & Stacey. She lives with her Emmerdale actor husband James Thornton and their four young children.

DON’T WORRY ABOUT BEING PERFECT

I’VE always wanted to do incredibly well — I’m an only child and an Aries, the star sign of perfectionists. At school I was known for doing well, which put even more pressure on me. But over the years I’ve realised that being a perfectionist holds me back.

When I first started going to auditions, I always thought I had be 100 per cent perfect and know all my lines. I felt that if I wasn’t the best I could possibly be, I shouldn’t even bother. So I got into a vicious cycle where I would worry that I wouldn’t perform at my best, then procrastinate and in the end miss the audition, as I hadn’t left myself enough time to prepare. Now, I turn up to read for a part and just enjoy the way I do it in that moment.

For the Gavin & Stacey special in 2019, I didn’t panic too much about any of that. If it’s not a perfect performance, then that’s how it was meant to be captured.

I was really, really nervous when I tried out for the film Love, Actually. I’d first auditioned for Sarah — the role eventually played by Laura Linney — but they felt I wasn’t right. When I later read for the part of Judy, although I was nervous and unprepared, I was more relaxed as they already knew me.

When I was in the play Fat Pig with Robert Webb in 2008, one night we both forgot our lines. We couldn’t get the scene back on track and I almost ran off stage to look at my script. But then I told myself: ‘It’s not the end of the world.’

Moments like that have made me think it’s OK if you’re not perfect. People quite like it when you’re not; it makes you more relatable.

The biggest change has been since I’ve had children. It’s put everything into perspective. I no longer have loads of time to prepare for auditions — but it’s far more fun now. I think to myself: ‘I know what I’m doing, I know what the scene is about,’ and I just get on with it.

JOANNA stars in Men Up. She also appears as a regular panellist on ITV’s Loose Women. Interview: VICKI POWER