A Quote by Gina McKee
The National Youth Theatre did one very simple but incredible thing for me: it made me realise I had choices.
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I had a very nice, cozy childhood. I did lots of plays at school and worked with the National Youth Theatre as a teenager.
I always loved drama at school. We had a great drama teacher at my secondary school, and she made drama feel cool. She inspired me, and then I did the National Youth Theatre in London.
I was always far more into anything creative that called for a bit of active participation, like reading aloud in class. Then, having left school shortly after my GCSEs, I auditioned for the National Youth Theatre of Wales and the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain as well as the Welsh National Youth Opera. I ended up getting into all three.
I became an actor by doing school plays and youth theaters, and then National Youth Theatre of Great Britain. And then I did study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. For me that was a good way to enter the field, to work in the theater.
My brother and sister were very sporty. They all did rugby. I was very into performing arts. I went to the National Youth Music Theatre. I was one of those singing, clapping children.
The best thing my mum and dad did was to send me to the local youth theatre. I loved that; I felt I'd found the thing I really wanted to do.
I was glad I did a year abroad, because it helped me as an athlete and as a person. That took me out of my comfort zone. Watching the French athletes train in the Pyrenees made me realise what I had to do to become a top athlete.
Belly made me aware that you could write songs that were mysterious or vulnerable. Their guitar-led music was in some ways very simple, the opposite of the pop music I was brought up with, like Michael Jackson. It made me realise music was something that you could be part of, make in your room.
Mum snuck me into speech and drama classes and into the National Youth Theatre and said I was going on a summer camp if Dad asked.
When I was doing theatre in Mumbai, actors won't come because they had television. For many years, I did theatre religiously and in Mumbai, I saw people disrespecting it and it hurt me very badly.
My friends from school did this incredible thing, where they made me a scrapbook filled with all of the screenshots from our group WhatsApp, where I had said, 'Oh my God, guys, I've been invited to read.' Or a random conversation we'd had four years ago when I said, 'Isn't Diana amazing!'
The main reason for the break was a combination of travel and going back to university, which drew me into theatre more than music. I did stuff on acoustic guitar when I was traveling, filed it away and made notes, without it being musical notation. Just taped the odd thing, did a sketch, stuck it on a cassette. I thought at some point, I'll go back to it. Some of it I did use in '84-'85 when I started working in the Free Theatre in Christchurch. So it might seem like I had given up after the Pin Group, but I just went into a different avenue.
A part of me would like to see the money go to hospitals or housing, but I have benefited so greatly from funding for the National Theatre, which has been incredible.
I was so lucky because I started working very young. And my father was very wealthy and I didn't need to work. I did my films. I was very well paid for my age, and I could make choices, decide not to do a film for six months and wait until I'd get the right thing. Which made me quite a coward, you know. It's so easy to say no to stuff, and then, after a while, it's very hard to go back in.
My parents have always been supportive. I come from a very simple middle class family, where the upbringing is very traditional. So for them to give me the kind of freedom to exercise my choices is very fortunate for me.
I've done a lot of costume drama and theatre - the National Theatre and In fact, most of my work at the theatre, at the National Theatre anyway, was period.
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