I’ve never stopped learning, says Lesley Manville

Lesley Manville will never stop learning as an actress because she doesn’t think she’s mastered her craft.

The 68-year-old star may have been working on stage and screen for decades but she will never assume that she can’t learn new things.

She told Harper’s Bazaar magazine: “I will never become a person who thinks, ‘Right, well, I’m this age, I’ve been working this many decades, so you’re not going to teach me.’

“That’s going to get you nowhere, and all you’re going to be is a pain in the a*** because you think you know everything – and you don’t.”

The ‘Grotesquerie’ actress has had a string of high-profile projects in recent years and she feels proud to be “having a moment” at this point in her life.

Lesley said: “I’m definitely having a moment. It’s a time in my career that is on a different level to what it has ever been.

“I always knew when I was a kid that everything in my life would take some time, and I’m glad, because if you get huge amounts of success in your 20s or 30s, it can be very difficult to sustain.”

Lesley starred in ‘Queer’, the romantic drama, alongside the likes of Daniel Craig and Drew Starkey in 2024. But many of her friends didn’t recognise her in the movie.

She explained: “People have said to me after watching it, ‘But Lesley, I thought you were meant to be in that…’

“ [The film is] the most off-the-wall thing I have ever been asked to do. What a treat to work with Luca [Guadagnino, the director], Daniel and Drew.”