Game of Thrones actress Kate Dickie tells us about spine tingling ghost stories and her love of Jaffa Cakes CREDO

Latin. (n) ‘I believe’. A set of beliefs which influences the way you live. One of Scotland’s best-loved actresses shares her secret midnight Jaffa Cake habit and a spine tingling tale with SF

I’m a bit of a mongrel.

I was born in Lanarkshire, then lived in Perthshire, Ayr, Dumfries and Galloway, and Fife. I’ve been in Glasgow for 30 years now and I see this as home, it’s the longest I’ve lived anywhere. I’ve thought about moving to London over the years, but I love Scotland and wanted to make living here work.

The Hermitage at Dunkeld is my favourite place in Scotland.

When I was wee it felt like I was going to look at Niagra Falls when we walked along to the Black Linn Falls. It’s a beautiful memory that I have of family and Sunday afternoon walks together.

My latest film is called Undergods.

It’s directed by Chino Moya and it’s in selected cinemas and On Demand.

If you can go to the cinema to see it you should. It’s a dark, dystopian tale and is very visual and cinematic. I play a woman who is very unhappy with her situation and when someone from her past reappears it blows her life apart. I seek out roles that are less commercial and desirable because I like the real, raw, truthful roles. Ones that everyone can relate to.

I’m just about to start on the varifocals journey.

I recently turned 50 and have spent the past few years taking my specs on and off, or holding a book at a certain distance from my face. I love reading. My favourite book ever is Burial Rites by Hannah Kent. It’s set in Iceland and is amazing.

Own your own space.

That’s the best piece of advice I’ve ever been given. It was given to me by Vicky Featherstone who is a director at the Royal Court Theatre. She is one of the most positive, amazing women I’ve ever worked with. She told me never to apologise for the space I take up in this world. I hold that very dear to me. I want to be that type of role model for my daughter. I want her to go through life with confidence.

I hate littering.

I was recently walking behind a group of teenagers and one of them tossed an Irn Bru bottle. I picked it up and went skipping after them saying ‘excuse me, I think you dropped something.’ It’s a bit passive aggresive but it won’t end in confrontation. They were rightly mortified. We have a wonderful, beautiful, fragile planet that needs to be cared for.

I’ve stopped my guilty pleasure because I got found out.

I went through a phase of waking up in the night with a craving for Jaffa Cakes. So, I kept a wee box by my bed so that I could have one. I woke one morning with my boyfriend staring at me in horror. He said, ‘have you been eating Jaffa Cakes?’ I said ‘no, why?’ He asked me again and I said ‘NO!’ He told me to look in the mirror and I had a half-eaten Jaffa Cake stuck to my left cheek! I’d obviously fallen asleep mid-munch. There was chocolate all over my pillow. So, I had to stop.

I believe in ghosts.

I’ve had a few unexplained things happen to me in life and believe that we do leave energy behind in this world. When I first moved to Glasgow I would wake up with little cuts down the side of my thumb. Then one night I felt this sudden scratch across my stomach when I was lying fully awake in bed. It wasn’t a big gash, but it drew blood. Then it all stopped, it was really weird.

My biggest achievement is still being here and breathing.

Just navigating life and getting through the day, while trying to be the best mum I can.

‘She told me never to apologise for the space I take up in this world’