Phoebe’s F-word rant to stay calm
Indiana Jones star’s backstage routine
PHOEBE Waller-bridge swears by an unusual technique for conquering stage fright.
Nerves were getting the better of the Fleabag actor before a performance until a co-star suggested a backstage, expletivefilled rant would calm her. Since then Phoebe, 37, has not looked back and this month she makes her bigscreen debut as Helena Shaw in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. She’s the goddaughter of archaeologist Indy, played by Harrison Ford, who helps him hunt down a legendary artefact. It’s a far cry from her uncomfortable experience in Noel Coward’s play Hay Fever in the West End in 2011. She said: “I suddenly got stage fright. And this amazing actor could see I was getting nervous. He took me out (behind the curtain) and I could hear the buzz of the audience. “He said, ‘This is what you do if you are feeling scared. You stand behind the curtain, take a deep breath and you just go: F*** you, you are lucky to have me. And you say it as loud as you can and we did it every night. Sometimes doing that feels great’.” Since then talented Phoebe has found fame starring in and writing the highly successful comedy Fleabag. She also wrote the darkly comic Killing Eve and has had major writing roles, including in the Bond film No Time To Die.
She is also developing an adaptation of Tomb Raider for Amazon Prime. Phoebe said: “I love Tomb Raider. I played it incessantly as a teenager and it affected me, impacted me and empowered me. And I don’t care what people think.”
Earlier this year she told student actors that auditioning for roles used to fill her with worry – joking that she looked like fairy-tale imp Rumpelstiltskin. But she now admits that being able to cast actors within seconds is an exciting process. And she urged aspiring talents to find the “joy in the hustle”, even when the future feels bleak.
She said: “I spent a long time realising I was spending more time on how I looked for an audition than how I was performing, as I heard people made their decision the second you walk into a room.
“So I thought, ‘Well if I look like Rumpelstiltskin...’”
She went on: “When I wrote my plays I sent them all off saying, ‘Here are my plays. Can’t wait to hear from you all.’ And only one person wrote back.
“It was such a hustle and I remember thinking, ‘Oh, I don’t know how anyone gets anywhere ever.’ It is such a brick wall.
“(But) there is something really great about the hustle. When people do expect something from you specifically, you have got a lot to play with there. Because the element of surprise is always in your lap.”