Don’t rely on sexuality, Peaky Blinders star warns young actresses

PEAKY Blinders star Helen Mccrory has urged other actresses not to accept roles based on their sexuality because it makes the occupation harder for other women.

Helen, 51, said there was a gender imbalance in the industry – although she admitted she had been “very, very lucky”.

She suggested women should “look to ourselves” to remedy the problem and reduce the emphasis on physical attractiveness.

She told Desert Island Discs, which is broadcast today: “I’m very, very lucky that I’m offered good parts in British television and stuff.

“I think you are finding writing that’s serving women fantastically and you’re getting older women playing fantastic parts, but it’s not an equal playing field.

“And what you do as an actress is you make sure that when you get a part you don’t make it dependent on your sexuality because that’s not going to make it easier for the women behind you.

“Because as an actress you know that you’ll have put filters on, you’ll have had makeup on, you’ll have had lighting... I don’t look like I look like on screen in life.

“Nobody looks like they look like on screen in life. But that’s one way to try and redress that balance. Look to ourselves.”

Helen also spoke of her relationship with her husband Damian Lewis, 49, star of Homeland and Billions. She said they had a “bumpy courtship” but she was smitten because he was “naughty”.

They met in 2003 when they worked on the play Five Gold

Rings. Four years later they got married and now have a daughter, Manon, 13, and a son, Gulliver, 12.

Helen, who has starred in the Harry Potter films and Bond movie Skyfall, said: “Damian’s naughty and I’ve always loved my naughty boys, and he makes me laugh and that was quite apparent quite early on.

“He just never lets me get away with anything and that would make me laugh even more. So I think we hit it off pretty quickly.

“We had a bumpy courtship, I think we’ll leave it like that. We are completely different as people but we are very similar in our values.

“We very rarely disagree with very fundamental things like parenting, which is a real acid test, I think, for any couple. I don’t want to say too many nice things because he is going to be roaring with laughter at the