Cathy Tyson: ‘Bob Hoskins helped me be unafraid as an actress’

http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/jan/18/cathy-tyson-interview-radiance-marie-curie-tabard

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In February, you’ll be playing Marie Curie in Alan Alda’s play Radiance, which is as much about the scandal her relationship with a colleague caused in belle epoque Paris as her achievements as a scientist...She was a very strong woman but the love affair has been very painful to read about. She was hounded and judged and it made her ill. I don’t know how she survived. I also read about her upbringing in Warsaw, how the Poles were treated by the Russians. The determination of that woman and the family that she came from… obviously she was a genius as well. I find theatre amazing – where it takes me. Over Christmas, I bought myself a telescope and a microscope. I thought: “I’m nearly 50. This is great.”

Your big break came aged 21, when you were cast in the Neil Jordan film Mona Lisa, along with Bob Hoskins. How do you feel about it now?The characters were quite incongruous [she played a prostitute]. I loved it though. Our country is not filmed enough and I feel immense pride [about it]. When Bob died, I hadn’t seen him for a long time. He invited me to a party and I wasn’t able to go and I was sad that I missed that opportunity to be with him. I owe a lot to Bob in the sense that he helped me to be unafraid to reach feelings as an actress.

Related: Observer review: Obsessive Genius by Barbara Goldsmith

Are you surprised to still be acting?When I first started, I was on a YOP [Youth Opportunities Programme] scheme and I thought: “What am I getting paid for? I don’t need it – I’m happy.” There was a stage when I was jaded, though. I was very low because I wasn’t getting the parts I wanted. I was getting small parts, and after you’ve played Portia and Cleopatra you feel underfed.

How did you cope?I’d always wanted to reconnect with study, so I did an access course and then, aged 44, went to Brunel University and lived in digs.

How did it go?It kick-started my life again. Taught me to read widely and take my time with an answer. It gave me a drive and ambition and when I finished I thought: “I’ve got to write.” I wrote something about my mum with my son [26-year-old musician Jack Tyson-Charles, whose father is her ex-husband, Craig Charles, the Coronation Street actor and BBC 6 Music DJ]. I also decided I wanted to create a theatre company with some friends – in part for middle-aged women – and today I found out that we’ve got funding for a project that will be the first production for our company, Pitch Lake. She Called Me Mother is written in the Trinidadian vernacular and it’s a massive challenge.

Do you support the likes of Kwame Kwei-Armah and David Harewood who speak out about the lack of parts for black and Asian actors in the UK?I laud them. At the end of last year, Peter Bazalgette [from Arts Council England] announced that theatre companies must reflect minorities in their work or risk losing funding. When I went for the Marie Curie interview, I actually wrote an email to my agent saying: “Are they just doing this to look good?” and she said: “You mustn’t think like this.” But I’m not a cynic. We live in a racially diverse country and I feel very free here. But for many years I went around thinking that when I entered a room, people would notice my colour first, and thinking that way was a massive handicap.

Your parents must be very proud of you...They’re both dead, sadly. They did see my earlier successes, yes, but I’m happier now and I’d have liked them to have seen that. I’m indebted to my parents... they were both working-class. My father was a barrister and my mother was a senior social worker.

Did you have a wayward youth?I did, yes... I ran away at 13 and went to London for a week. I was bored of Liverpool – it was wastelands and scallies then and I didn’t fit in. I thought: “If this is all life here has to offer me, I’ve got to go.” I was a black kid in Dingle, Liverpool 8, who was getting called names. My mum and I would be abused as we walked down the street. She was called an n-lover. And there was drama all around us. Joyriding in the streets. I was terrified, I was isolated. I grew up with no brothers and sisters and I felt an outsider.

When did you start to feel like an insider?I felt like an insider at home, with my mother. We went to Wales every year and she took me to the Wirral every weekend. I knew about nature. Plus we had the Convent of the Good Shepherd in our lives because my great auntie was a nun and, of course, the social workers were great. There was a glimpse of another life. A gentleness. The first time I felt like an insider outside home was when I joined Liverpool’s Everyman theatre.

I read that you won’t be interviewed by the Sun. Is that because of Hillsborough?It was because of Page 3, initially. Actually, someone from the Sun knocked on the door the other day because of Craig’s brother dying and him coming back [from the Australian jungle where he was a participant in I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here] and I said: “I don’t talk to the Sun, I’m from Liverpool.”

Do you get on with Craig Charles now?He has been very supportive. He’s been amazing with my son. Last summer, we went to a jazz festival in Birmingham that Craig hosts, and my son was performing there. The welcome I got from Craig’s wife and family... I thought: “Wow, we’ve come a long way.”

What was it like being a single mother? I found it difficult being on my own. Not with him, but where my head took me when I was younger, thinking: “Nobody will want me now I’m a parent.” Sitting at home alone with a youngster. But I managed. There are different types of loneliness. I’m lonely now because he’s not around – he’s left home. He said to me recently: “I’m so glad my parents weren’t normal. I would have hated that – to grow up in a normal home.” And I thought: “Oh, OK. He’s happy.” I’m very fortunate to have him. He’s funny. His humour gets him by.

And you work together?Yes, I write poems and Jack puts music to them. We did two performances in London last year. Benjamin Zephaniah came to one of them and he gave us some pointers, so I was honoured by that. We will do more hopefully, as part of Pitch Lake.

Radiance: The Passion of Marie Curie is at the Tabard theatre, London W4, 4-28 February. Tickets: 020-8995 6035