How agreeable are you?
I’m too agreeable. I’m of the generation where women were taught to be nice, nice, nice, but now it’s more circumstantial as to how agreeable I am. I now choose my battles, but in the past, I just avoided them at all costs.
What’s your middle name and what do you think of it?
My middle name is Marie, and I didn’t like it when I was younger. My mum always used to say, ‘Her name isn’t Anne, it’s Anne Marie’. When it came to the Confirmation name, she insisted that I choose Bernadette. Talk about ultra Catholic – Anne Marie Bernadette! I like it now because my mum chose the name, and I’m named after my paternal grandmother. I like that it’s traditional, and also that it reminds me of my mum.
Where is your favourite place in Ireland?
I live in Dublin 8, near St Patrick’s Cathedral. You’ve got the cathedral, the park, and out the back is Francis Street. Close by is the Tenters, a lovely area where my close friend and my sister live, so it’s the best of all worlds. I love the Liberties, and I feel lucky to live in a place that I love – you know when you come back from somewhere that you’re happy to be home.
Describe yourself in three words
I was talking to himself about it, and he said, “Lovely, lovely, lovely”, but the truth is I’m sleepy, chaotic, and I’ve got big bursts of energy, so I would say sleepy, chaotic and creative.
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When did you last get angry?
I don’t like getting angry, but it happens when I’m driving with himself when we’re on tour. I do the driving and he navigates; sometimes he’ll misread a map, so we take the squiggly road to the venue. That usually drives me bananas, and we end up having arguments in the car. What I love about working with someone you’re close with, though, is that we can laugh about it. Well, I laugh about it.
What have you lost that you would like to have back?
I have lost the central vision in my left eye. I’m annoyed at myself that I didn’t do my due diligence, that I didn’t get a second opinion, and that I didn’t do my research, but I was really busy with work, and I trusted the doctor I was dealing with. This experience with my eye has left me disillusioned and very scared every time I have to go to the hospital about it. I’m upset because blindness runs in my mother’s side of the family. I have two aunties who are completely blind, and my great-grandfather was blind, so I’m afraid of losing my vision completely. It’s created an edginess in my life, and I’m aware of it all the time. It’s fine for driving if there’s just one fixed field ahead, but on stage, my depth of vision goes, and I just wear one contact lens.
What is your strongest childhood memory?
All my strong childhood memories are around the differences between moving in the early 1970s from Levenshulme, just outside Manchester, to my father’s decrepit little farm in Sligo, with a broken-down three-room cottage that didn’t have running water. We moved from a lovely semidetached Victorian house to the farm because the Land Commission were going to take it. As a 5½-year-old, I knew all of the positive things about Ireland. I had a snowball with a leprechaun in it with a fishing rod, and when you shook it, there was all this silver stuff in the air around him. I had storybooks where the Irish sun was always shining, and there were fairies and elves. I thought Ireland was going to be, literally, fairyland. I was so excited! We moved in early November, so it was raining and cold. My father was a painter and decorator, and said he would quickly build the bungalow of his dreams. My mother agreed to stay, but what happened was he became an alcoholic, and my mum kind of shut down because she couldn’t believe what had happened. I look back now, however, and I feel very lucky that I had the privilege of a rural upbringing. For all that I missed England, I’m glad to be so deeply rooted and connected to where my parents and ancestors come from, and understanding that I truly am Irish.
Where do you come in your family’s birth order, and has this defined you?
I’m the middle child and the eldest girl, so how it has defined me is that I took responsibility for a lot of stuff. I remember when I was about 12 or 13, looking around, going, oh, my God, I’m the only adult in this situation. I have responsibility!
What do you expect to happen when you die?
I hope it’s moments of peace and then nothing. Yes, after the peace, I’d love there to be nothing.
When were you happiest?
I remember being really, really unhappy as a kid, but I was always trying to figure things out. Even though I’ve struggled a lot in life, I’ve tried very hard to align things, and because of that, I’m happier now than I’ve ever been. I feel lucky for that.
Which actor would play you in a biopic about your life?
I was talking to himself about that, and he went, say you’d play yourself because you need the work! Either that or Sydney Sweeney, who has that old-school voluptuousness. What I really like about her, though, is that she has that sleepy look. I’m quite a sleepy person; like, I go from being really overactive to needing to lie down. So, yeah, it’s Sydney Sweeney or me.
What’s your biggest career/personal regret?
I genuinely don’t have regrets because I feel like every decision I’ve made and everything that happened has led to where I am, and I’m really happy about where I am. Even things that were ostensibly not great at the time – they were all meant to happen. I mean, what is life about? It’s not about worrying that some people have an optimal life and that you don’t; it’s about you’re here, you experience life, and then you die. I’m really happy with the way things have panned out; if things hadn’t happened the way they unfolded, I wouldn’t be where I am and who I am now.
Have you any psychological quirks?
I absolutely overanalyse and try to control things mentally. I’ve been trying to let that go a bit and trust more in the unfolding of things. Of course, it’s not bad to think about things, and it certainly helps in the profession I’m in. I think a lot of comedians have that kind of head. They have a lot of interests all over the place, and yes, they overanalyse, but the weird connections that come up are where the comedy is.
In conversation with Tony Clayton-Lea
Anne Gildea performs at Townhall Arts Centre, Cavan, on Saturday, January 31st. Her tour extends into February, March and beyond. Visit annegildea.com for details
