Bodyguard star Keeley Hawes has admitted that she is already preparing for life away from acting.
The 46-year-old has starred in hit shows such as Line of Duty, Ashes to Ashes and It's A Sin but the BAFTA TV Award-winning actress has revealed she is ready to embrace life as she gets older, even if that means stepping away from our TV screens.
Speaking to The Mail on Sunday's You magazine, Keeley said: "I love it, I’ve been really lucky but over the past couple of years, like lots of people, you think, 'God, life is short and you’re only here once' – if you believe that, which I do – and there might be other avenues to explore.
"I’ll be 50 in a minute. There might be other things out there for me."
She said that acting gives her the chance to live vicariously through her array of different characters that she gets to play and appreciates the 33-year career she has had so far.
Some of the characters she portrays may be wild or eccentric, but Keeley revealed she much "prefer going to bed than going out", adding: "I wake up in the morning, look at my bed and think, 'I won’t be long, my friend.'"
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Hawes went into detail about how the industry has changed for the better for women over the years after saying she has witnessed and called out "racism, misogyny, sexism, harassment and bullying", which would not have been the case earlier in her career due to fears of people losing their jobs.
Despite improvements for younger actresses, Hawes still feels there is work to do for the older generation. She has co-signed an open letter from the Acting Your Age campaign urging parity between the sexes, along with other stars such as David Tennant, Leslie Manville and Richard E. Grant.
Keeley said: "There is still glaring inequality on our screens. Women’s stories don’t stop after 45. Their lives don’t become less interesting, but the demand for older actresses and presenters drops off statistically."
Her husband Matthew Macfadyen, 47, is also an actor who stars in US drama Succession and the acting couple are set to feature in an ITV series together later this year.
The new three-part series is about love cheat Labour MP John Stonehouse, who faked his own death, ran off with his mistress and was later exposed as spying for the Czechs.
Matthew plays the shamed politician, whose disappearance was huge news back in the 1970s. Keeley plays his wife Barbara and the series is called, simply, Stonehouse.
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