By Alexander Bisley
Image by Catherine Bisley

Romola Garai has big blue eyes and is tall and willowy. Impressive in Amazing Grace as abolitionist Barbara Wilberforce, she has also won acclaim for I Capture the Castle and her contemporary roles in Angel and Atonement. Angel director Francois Ozon describes her as his muse.

Romola Garai is fiery, with a cool edge. Less keen to talk about her 2000 breakthrough, ingénue role with David Walliams on TV show Attachments, she ardently explains to me why she thinks The Seagull’s Nina is the greatest role there is for a young actress.

Like Ian McKellen, there’s a glint in her eye when she discusses King Lear. “I have two sisters,” she laughs, this Cordelia can relate to Goneril and Regan: “The intimacy, the closeness, how they use it against each other.”

The Bacchanals’ recent production of Lear emphasised Goneril’s sex-violence nexus. Romola believes this relationship is notable throughout Shakespeare.

Romola enthuses about the power of theatre: “It’s about intimacy... you build a relationship very specific to the audience you’re having.” And Scar Jo, who she worked alongside on Woody Allen’s Scoop: “Absolutely charming”.

ALEXANDER BISLEY’s full interview with Romola Garai can be heard [here] (MP3, 13 min, 5.4 MB).