‘I have the stamina of people half my age’

Her career has spanned five decades and, at 65, The Crown star LESLEY MANVILLE is just getting started. She tells Julia Llewellyn Smith how she’s redefining our preconceptions of middle age – on and off screen – and loving every second

The next time I need inspiration on juggling work and home life, I’ll look no further than Lesley Manville. The actress, who has starred in everything from the beloved BBC sitcom Mum to Amazon Prime’s drama series Harlots and will play Princess Margaret in The Crown’s season five (later this year), definitely knows how to work hard and have a happy personal life.

Take how she handled attending the 2018 Oscars, after she received a best supporting actress nomination for her role as the icy sister of Daniel Day-Lewis’s obsessive couturier in Phantom Thread. Lesley needed to be in Los Angeles for the ceremony, but at the time she was starring in Long Day’s Journey Into Night in London’s West End and the producers were reluctant to give her time off. ‘My understudy was brilliant but they felt people had paid to see me and [co-star] Jeremy Irons,’ Lesley explains.

Instead, a plan was formed, which makes my brain ache just to imagine. There was no play on Monday – the day of the awards ‒ so she did two performances on Saturday, then rushed back to her home in London. ‘It was midnight but I thought, “I’ve got to wash my hair, there’ll be no time for that in LA.”’

She got to bed about 1.30am, only to rise an hour and a half later to go to the airport with her son Alfie, 32, a camera operator. Airline schedules meant the only way to arrive on time was flying via Amsterdam. But their first flight was delayed and they were worried they would miss their connection.

‘But in Amsterdam an amazing woman picked us up in a buggy and steamed her way through the airport, practically knocking down children,’ Lesley says, laughing at the memory. ‘Alfie and I boarded the plane to LA and it was still only 8am. We had a glass of champagne and said, “Here we go!”’

As soon as she landed, ‘I was taken up by a whole team of people. One was doing my hair, one my make-up, one my nails.’ She rushed to the ceremony where she could finally sit back. ‘What people don’t realise, though, is the Oscars goes on for ever – four or five hours because of all the commercial breaks. Helen Mirren kept asking me to go for a drink at the bar. I said: “Helen, you’ve no idea what my journey’s been like. I don’t want to miss my category after all this travelling because I’m having a vodka with you.”’

In the end, Lesley lost out to Allison Janney for her role in I, Tonya but she still partied the night away – although the canapés served at the Governors Ball weren’t nearly enough to sustain her. ‘I was running on empty and jet-lagged, it was all so bonkers. I said, “I need a meal!”’

She wondered if she might get one at the two after-parties she had been invited to ‒ the prestigious Vanity Fair soirée or the ceremony host Jimmy Kimmel’s. ‘I asked my director Paul Thomas Anderson what the Vanity Fair party would be like and he said, “It’s just like this but ten times as crowded and full of 6ft 2in models!”’ Neither option sounded appealing, so instead a few people from the film headed back to the hotel. ‘We had omelettes and cocktails, but I had to stay sober because I was doing an interview at midnight with BBC Radio 4’s Today.’

The following day, she flew home. She landed on Tuesday morning and that night – 72 hours after leaving the London

‘I WAS RUNNING ON EMPTY AND JET-LAGGED AT THE OSCARS. IT WAS BONKERS’