Ali Bastian
Ali Bastian The pregnant actress, 37, on swearing like a trooper and figuring out the secret KFC chicken recipe
MY HIDDEN TALENT is cooking Kfc-style chicken at home. I figured out the Colonel’s secret recipe with lots of trial and error. I can make a bit of a healthier version, which is nice. It’s not fried, it’s cooked in the oven and I use crushed almonds instead of breadcrumbs, so it’s gluten-free.
MY MOST TREASURED POSSESSIONS are my dogs, Molly and Mabel.
I AM A SPIRITUAL PERSON – I find a connection through yoga and meditation. As an actor, sometimes there’s even a sense of presence and connection in transactions with other human beings and artists.
MY BEST FRIENDS ARE Jodi Albert, Sarah Jayne Dunn and Carley Stenson, so we go way, way back. I’ve known them since I was 19, and I feel like we’ve been through a lot together. I’m still very close to my school friends Ellie, Lou and Tommy, too.
I BELIEVE THERE’S SOMETHING ELSE OUT THERE because I’ve definitely had things over the years that have made me question everything and gave me a real sense of there being more.
TO CHILL OUT I walk my dogs. I also really enjoy powering through a Netflix box set.
I’D DESCRIBE MYSELF as creative, sensitive, messy and eclectic.
A PROJECT I’M PROUD OF is playing Roxie Hart in Chicago. I wasn’t necessarily in my comfort zone at the beginning, but I certainly was by the end.
IF THE WORLD WERE TO END TOMORROW I would go to Ireland with my husband [actor David O’mahony] and our dogs. That’s our happy place. We spend a lot of time on the west coast, so I feel like that’s the place to be.
THE BIGGEST MISCONCEPTION ABOUT ME is that I’m like a good girl. I am a good girl, essentially, but there are also other aspects to me, like the fact that I swear a lot. I get really passionate, but people don’t always see that side of me. Whenever I’ve left a job and they do a nice speech on my last day, it’s never gone unsaid that I swear like an absolute trooper.
THE PIECE OF ADVICE I’D GIVE MY 15-YEAR-OLD SELF would be that it’s all gonna be OK, it’s all gonna sort itself out in the end. In my teens and twenties I was so busy – Hollyoaks kicked off for me when I was 19 – and it probably took until my thirties to actually step off the treadmill and spend a little bit of time in my own skin.
IN A CRISIS I WOULD CALL my husband and my mum. And Jodi Albert, actually – she’s definitely on the hotline. Her advice is really sound, she’s just one of life’s grounded, great people, who has always been there and has always had time for me.