Harriet Walter has said that she sometimes questions if she is “very selfish” for not having children.
Reflecting on her many acting roles, some of which involve her portraying matriarchs, Walter revealed that she can “feel weird” about having not given birth.
Speaking to British Vogue, the 73-year-old said: “I punish myself and think, ‘Gosh, am I very selfish because I’ve travelled light-footedly through life?’
“I do feel weird sometimes that I haven’t actually done that thing of giving birth.
“Here I am, at the end of my life, and I never did that? That’s gonna make you feel very old and grey.”
Walter, known for playing Lady Caroline Collingwood in Succession, is to star in Federico Garcia Lorca’s tragedy The House Of Bernarda Alba at the National Theatre.
Speaking on her role as the mother, she said: “The patriarchy is, occasionally, very well run by matriarchs.
“Bernarda is sort of a lieutenant of the patriarchy.
“And so the house itself is a model of a society that is run on repression and fear.”
According to the National Theatre website, the play’s “formidable matriarch” guards her reputation “against the rising tide of her family’s desires” in the drama that explores “the consequences of oppressing women”.
Speaking on why she thinks she has been historically cast in the role of matriarch, Walter said: “It’s to do with looks, isn’t it? I don’t look cuddly. I don’t look sweet and nice.”
Discussing her looks further, she added: “It seems to me that there were some old-fashioned attitudes around when I was coming up.”
According to the actress, she was told by a man when she was starting out: “’I would get your nose done.’
“And somebody else said, ‘You should fix your teeth’. And I ignored them,” she recalled.
“Partly out of laziness, partly because I never thought of myself as a looker.”
The November issue of British Vogue is available via digital download and on newsstands from Tuesday October 24.