Jane Horrocks: ‘I’d love to be a baddie in a Tarantino movie’

Each year I convince myself that you’re beneath one of the costumes on The Masked Singer, but I’m proved hopelessly wrong! Has your drama school holiday job – wearing a Snoopy costume in Harrods’ linen department – put you off? VerulamiumParkRanger
I have been offered The Masked Singer, but it’s not something I want to do. It’s not because of Snoopy, although that wasn’t a great experience. The associate director at Rada [Royal Academy of Dramatic Art] was asked whether any of the students would be prepared to get into a Snoopy costume in the linen department during the Easter holidays. I don’t know why, but they asked me and I got the gig. I was at Rada with Imogen Stubbs, so she came into Harrods to see me. She looked at me and said: “Jane? Is that you inside that costume?” She was absolutely mortified. It was so hot in Harrods, and twice as hot inside the Snoopy outfit, but so cold outside that I ended up with glandular fever and missing half a term at Rada because of it.

How do you get in character to voice a chicken (Chicken Run), turkey (this year’s Peta [People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals] adverts) or duck (Garfield)? Ever worry you are being typecast as poultry? TopTramp
I guess I have a bit of a history voicing similar sorts of birds. They often send you the pictures first so you can get an idea of the character. Babs in Chicken Run has a very outstretched Wallace and Gromit-type mouth. Babs is such a large chicken, so I thought a sweet little voice would work well. For Tessa the turkey from the Peta campaign, I wanted more of a throaty, slightly jarring voice.

When did you discover you had an amazing voice? chargehand
From starting impersonations, really. My first impersonation was Julie Andrews when I got The Sound of Music album when I was nine. I fell in love with sounding like Julie. My mum and dad were massively into Shirley Bassey and I found I could impersonate her and Barbra Streisand. That’s when I started to realise that utilising my voice was going to be a good thing for me. It’s brought me a lot of pleasure, and I’ve made people laugh, which is great.

What was it like working with Nic Roeg and Anjelica Huston on [1990 Jim Henson Roald Dahl fantasy horror] The Witches, a far superior, nastier and funnier adaptation than the Anne Hathaway remake? Mesm and Roedelius
I loved it. I don’t think I realised at the time what a privilege it was to work with Nic Roeg. It was so well cast. The group cast to play the witches were absolutely crazy. I’d never worked with a group of actors like that before, or since. I used to live in Twickenham and went into the local fish shop where this very eccentric and extraordinarily dressed woman said: “Hello, Jane.” I thought: “How on earth do I know this woman?” She said: “We were in Witches together.” I thought: “Yep. Stands to reason.”

How did you prepare to play troubled twin Nicola in Life Is Sweet? How much of the dialogue was created through Mike Leigh’s rehearsal process? Did anyone attempt to cook Aubrey’s hideous creations for real? BunionB and zebthecat
All the dialogue is created in the rehearsal room, recorded by somebody sat in a corner, taking notes. It’s then fine tuned, and that’s what you end up speaking. That’s Mike Leigh’s method. We had three months’ rehearsal, so it’s was a long and thorough process. It was hard not to become completely immersed, but Mike encourages you to step away from the character to be objective so you can comment on the character’s development. As for the recipes – I think my character would have run for a bucket by that point.

Of all the films you have done, which is your favourite? Which director would you love to work with again, or in the future, given the chance? FeetLikeFins
I very much enjoyed doing Little Voice, so I would say that was my favourite so far. Life Is Sweet is up there, too. Directors who I’d love to work with? Paul Thomas Anderson. I’d love to do a Quentin Tarantino movie. I’d like to be some sort of baddie, which would be a bit of a shocker, but I’m not sure what my specialist skill would be. I’m not very good at swords, like Uma Thurman in Kill Bill. I wasn’t good at stage fighting at all at Rada. In fact, I was very poor. We had to do a public stage fight, so my friend and I decided to do that scene from The Wicked Lady with Faye Dunaway with the whips. We had these six-foot whips. This guy called Reg who taught Harrison Ford how to whip-fight for Indiana Jones taught us and had much more success with my friend Serena than he did me. I could barely lift the whip, let alone whip with it. I’d prefer to be some sort of gun-toting baddie. I’d like to play opposite Joaquin Phoenix. Do put in a word with Tarantino, if you can!

I loved seeing you and Mark Rylance as the Macbeths at Greenwich theatre: a very intelligent contemporary response to the play, I thought. Are there any other Shakespeare parts you’d love to play? Hamlet? thesighman
I did have a wonderful time working with Mark on Macbeth. It was one of my most extraordinary theatre theatrical experiences. I’ve had some amazing experiences doing Shakespeare and found the language wonderful. But I find Shakespeare very difficult to understand and then I feel sorry for the people I’ve invited because invariably they don’t understand what it’s about, either. So, no, I don’t want to play Hamlet. There are no other Shakespeare roles I want to play.

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How was your experience of sitting for your portrait on Sky Arts’ Portrait Artist of the Year? Do you have your painting on display at home? VerulamiumParkRanger
I do have my portrait, but it’s now in storage because I moved last year. Before that it was underneath my bed. I just thought it was too narcissistic to have it up, even though they made my nose look smaller, which I asked for, so I was very pleased!

How did you get involved in the video for New Order’s 1963? coruja3151
It’s a good song, isn’t it? Michael Shamberg, who was producing the video, asked me to do it. I’d been a huge Joy Division fan so to be in a New Order video was such an amazing accolade. To this day, I still get silly when I see them. I did a project at Manchester international festival [in 2017] and was invited to watch them at a dress rehearsal. Afterwards I went backstage and said: “Can I have a selfie with you?” They said: “We have met before, you know!”

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