The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
OUT OF THE SHADOWS
Having suffered stage fright and been scared by her success, Perth-born actress Michelle Duncan reveals to Rebecca Baird how she’s finally ready to leave the wallflowers behind and step into the spotlight
Why haven’t you heard of Michelle Duncan? The Perthborn actress has played alongside James McAvoy in Atonement (2007), Rami Malek in Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) and even David Tennant in cult TV show Doctor Who. And now, Ian Rankin fans will recognise Michelle as Maggie Blantyre, long-suffering wife of Detective Sergeant Rebus’s former boss in the new BBC series, Rebus.
Yet even though she’s rubbed shoulders with Hollywood royalty and British royalty alike, 46-year-old Michelle has managed to keep a fairly low profile.
“There are two Scottish actors from Scone,” Michelle smiles. “One of us (Joanna Vanderham) is famous, and one is not. I’m the not-famous one!”
The question is, why? And the answer, Michelle bravely shares, is that she was afraid.
“One of the reasons I have such a little career is that I once suffered from crippling stage fright,” she explains.
“My career was going really well. I had just done Atonement, and I was going up for these huge, huge parts. Big jobs that would’ve been life-changing.
“I went up for the lead role of Sophie in Mamma Mia! (2008) and they saw me three times, but I was a complete unknown. I was second or third choice. It was devastating.
“Then, in 2007, I was playing Portia in The Merchant Of Venice at The Globe theatre. And five minutes before I was meant to go on, I ran away as fast as I could.
“Everything was going well and I was on an upward trajectory, and then I ran away and decided I couldn’t be an actress any more. “It was terrifying.”
But why run, when everything was going so well?
For Michelle, the issue was filling the space – vocally, first and foremost, as she worried her “light voice” wouldn’t travel throughout the entire Globe theatre.
But it was her artistic director at the time, Dominic Dromgoole, who helped her realise that she was also afraid to step into the limelight she’d earned.