Brenda Blethyn has shared a “crushing moment” from her past theatre job, contrasting it with her experience on the set of Vera.
In a recent chat, Brenda recalled landing a role in a musical at Coventry’s Belgrade Theatre during a period when she was scared of her “own shadow”. She told The Times’ Ben Dowell about an incident where she offered to help with a dance routine, only for the director to respond with “she speaks”.
This “crushing moment”, as Ben described it, stayed with Brenda, who now encourages actors to make their voices heard. Brenda stated: “I am not afraid to speak my mind now. Your opinion is as good as anybody’s.
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“On Vera there was not a single ego. I have no time for all that.”
Brenda had previously announced her departure from the ITV series, admitting it wasn’t an easy decision and predicted she would “probably be crying” by March. “As much as I loved all that, I’ve got a family at home and I realised I hadn’t had a summer for 14 years with my family. So I still did another series because I couldn’t drag myself away,” she explained.
“But anyway it was time, that’s all.”, reports the Express.
In April, it was revealed that the 14 year old show would conclude, with the final episode airing tonight on ITV1. Speaking earlier to Radio Times, Brenda mentioned one scene was “emotional” to film.
Brenda recalled a ‘crushing moment’ from her early career
(Image: Mike Marsland/WireImage)
In a touching revelation, Brenda shared that the scene with her character Vera and DC Kenny Lockhart in the series ‘Vera’ was so emotional it “broke” her heart upon reading the script. She spoke of how honoured she felt when Jon Morrison, who plays Kenny, called her to express gratitude.
She said: “Jon rang me up after it was all over. And he said, ‘I just wanted to thank you for giving us 14 years of work.’ What a gentleman. But I thanked him and told him I certainly wasn’t going to do any episodes without him which is true.”
The upcoming final episodes promise high drama as Vera investigates the discovery of a young man’s body surrounded by a web of complex motives including “a broken relationship, secret love, grudges, regret and fraud”. The esteemed cast continues with David Leon as Joe Ashworth, Rhiannon Clements playing Detective Steph Duncan, and Shobna Gulati filling the role of Chief Superintendent Khalon.