Penelope Wilton: ‘They wanted me to tone down my death in Shaun of the Dead. It was too frightening’

The venerable screen and stage star reveals why she insisted on meeting a bloody end in Edgar Wright’s zomcom, loved working with Ricky Gervais and which of her film roles has the biggest Rastafarian fanbase

Many actors transform from one version of themselves into another, like Al Pacino around the time of Scarface. Others approach their older selves until they inhabit them, like Jim Broadbent. You have remained your same self: graceful, poised, elegant and eloquent. How do you do it? DrHugbine

One has absolutely no understanding of how one comes across. Well, I certainly don’t. I’m delighted [you] think that about me. I’ve never thought of myself as an older person. There are far more interesting things to think about – what’s going on in the characters’ minds, where they find themselves in the situation given by the playwright or the screenwriter. I think I’ve kept a naivety. Michael Grandage, a director who I know very well, saw Mrs Warren’s Profession on YouTube, which I did with Coral Browne a hundred years ago when I was 24, and said: “Physically, you’ve changed. But you haven’t changed.” I don’t know quite how to take that. Perhaps I’ve stayed the same.

I can’t imagine being in any situation so terrible that the words, “Don’t worry – Penelope Wilton’s here” wouldn’t make things better. But what makes you lose your temper? CHARISMATA and arch54lg