MIRIAM MARGOLYES

Endlessly effervescent & invariably entertaining, Miriam Margolyes has been acting for six decades, appearing in films as diverse as Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, The Age of Innocence and Romeo + Juliet. As she tells MiNDFOOD, she has no intent

At the age of 77, the inimitable actor has no plans to slow down – or act her age.

My interview with actor Miriam Margolyes almost does not happen. After weeks of to-ing and fro-ing about Ms Margolyes’ availability, her publicist eventually declares that she cannot be interviewed after all as she will not have any free time to talk to me before Christmas. ‘But that is six weeks away,’ I think to myself. ‘How can she not have 30 minutes free in six weeks?’

When I eventually do manage to pin down the captivating Englishborn performer, I understand how this is. Margolyes, 77, has just finished wrapping one film the day before we meet, and she has exactly 48 hours off before she flies to the other side of the country to start filming another one. After a short break for Christmas, she will then up sticks to Melbourne for the five-week theatre run of Alan Bennett’s play, The Lady in the Van, in which she is playing the title role.

The inimitable Ms Margolyes – still in high demand as she approaches her eighth decade – has been performing for nigh on 60 years and, remarkably, she has been able to support herself entirely through her craft – apart from a brief period selling the Children’s Britannica encyclopaedia door-todoor. But she didn’t last long at that.

“I felt [the sales pitch] was deceptive and I didn’t like it at all,” she says in her crisp English accent. Fortunately, young Miriam’s talent was discerned early on and the roles began coming in soon after she graduated from Cambridge University, where

she acted in student productions with the likes of John Cleese, Graham Chapman and Bill Oddie, and where she distinguished herself by saying “F***” on national television.

“I was competing in [the television show] University Challenge for Cambridge University and at one stage, I gave a wrong answer. You can very clearly see me saying, ‘Oh, f***!’ although it is bleeped out. I think I was the first person to say it on British television actually. My parents, who were very conventional and middleclass, must have been horrified but they never mentioned it,” she says with a hint of mischief.

An only child, Margolyes grew up in Oxford in a sheltered, loving home with her adoring mother and Jewish GP father. “They were always very anxious for me to behave in a ladylike way,” she muses, “and, of course, I never have.”

An unconventional future was perhaps on the cards when, as a 17-year- old schoolgirl, Margolyes saw Welsh painter Augustus John on TV and decided she’d like him to paint her in the nude. “I fell in love with him and thought ‘What a fabulous man!’ So I wrote to him to see if he would like to paint me but his wife rang up my parents and told them.

“I can’t believe they agreed to let me sit for him. He was the most adorable man but he died shortly after I posed for him, before he could finish my painting … I don’t think the two things were connected.”

After reading English at Cambridge, Margolyes began acting in repertory theatre around England, during which time she was seduced by an older, female stage manager. These days, Margolyes is known for telling people when she first meets them that “I am Jewish and I’m a lesbian, so it’s all out on the table from the start”. But presumably, self- declared Sapphics were rather thin on the ground in 1960s England – so does she remember coming out of the closet in terms of her sexuality?

“I don’t think I was ever in the closet really,” she says thoughtfully. “At high school, I always had passionate crushes on older girls, but that was pretty common when I was growing up. I didn’t realise then that it was a precursor of my sexual preference. I’d had boyfriends before but then in my twenties, when I was seduced by a woman, that altered things for me,

rapidly.”

Margolyes has been with her Australian partner, Heather, for some 50 years and in 2013, after spending much of her time flitting between Europe and the NSW south coast, where they share a home together, she became an Australian citizen. “What appealed to me about Australia is the sense of a fair go – fairness and a quiet irony – that’s the national character,” she says. “There is a lack of class consciousness here, which is extremely delightful, they judge you on how they find you. In England, they judge much more on your background and voice and education. The class system is still rampant.”

Her latest role is a balanced blend of her two nationalities: she is performing with the Melbourne Theatre Company in The Lady in the Van, the true story of Miss Mary Shepherd, a homeless woman who camped in the London driveway of English playwright Alan Bennett for the last 15 years of her life. Maggie Smith famously portrayed Shepherd in the eponymous 2015 film and Margolyes is excited, if a little nervous, to be taking on the role. “I am not on stage the whole time but it’s quite a demanding role and I am not young … I hope that my stamina will hold out. I am known for being pretty indestructible but this will be full-on.”

She was attracted to the role by the MTC’s reputation, director Dean Bryant, the playwright himself and above all – “it’s a bloody good part!” To try to stay in shape for the physical demands of performing eight times a week, she swims every day and recently gave up sugar – although she made an exception for a “divine” bread and butter pudding she recently encountered on a film set buffet.

Throughout her long and colourful career, Margolyes has worked with everyone from Rowan Atkinson to Barbra Streisand, to Daniel Day-Lewis and Arnold Schwarzenegger. When I ask her to name some of her favourite actors, she reels off Angelica Houston, Pamela Rabe, Judy Davis and Magda Szubanski. “Any men?” I ask. “Well, I am more interested in women, aren’t I?!” she laughs, before begrudgingly allowing Hugo Weaving and Guy Pearce onto the list.

When not working, Margolyes says she tends to be “lazy because I work pretty hard”. Her twin passions are genealogy (she has traced her family tree back to 1790, although “it’s very hard to get records for before the Holocaust”) and politics. Having been brought up in a Tory (Conservative) family, she is now a vocal member of both the British and Australian Labor parties, “with a veering towards the Greens”. Despite being proud of her Jewish heritage, she also condemns Israel’s recent and current treatment of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, which makes her less than popular with some of her faith. “I am a passionate supporter of the Palestinians and I speak about it often,” she declares. “It is quite shocking how they have been treated.”

Latterly, she has been drawn towards making documentaries such as Miriam’s Big American Adventure, in which she goes searching for the meaning behind Trump’s America, Armchair Britain, where she takes a nostalgic, leisurely tour of the British Isles, and Matron, Medicine and Me: 70 Years of the NHS – a examination of Britain’s health service. It seems there is no end to Margolyes’ talents and no shortage of work being offered her, despite her advancing years.

“I know, I have been extremely lucky – I have always managed to get enough work. I have been able to hold down a career and never been pigeonholed.” She gives a wry grin: “I think my parents would be astonished to see how it’s all turned out.”

• The MTC season of The Lady in the Van runs from 2 February to 6 March. For more details and tickets, visit mtc.com.au

“When I was seduced by a woman, that altered things for me, rapidly.” MIRIAM MARGOLYES