Greta Scacchi, 63, is an Emmy award-winning actor. Born in Milan, Italy, she spent her childhood in England and two years of her teens in Australia, where she began working in theatre. Her films include White Mischief, The Player and Emma, and she can currently be seen in the TV series Bodies and recent film Run Rabbit Run (with Succession’s Sarah Snook), both on Netflix. Scacchi is about to play Mrs Hardcastle in a 1930s-style update of Goldsmith’s She Stoops to Conquer at the Orange Tree theatre, Richmond.
She Stoops to Conquer’s Mrs Hardcastle is one of theatre’s best-known older female characters – flamboyant, mercenary, funny and vulnerable. What drew you to her?
I remembered the play from my first year at drama school when I was 18. You wouldn’t have thought of it to look at me then but I loved playing the ridiculous character parts. Mrs Hardcastle was one I’d always wanted to do, so it’s incredible that it’s finally happened, now I suit the age and the size of the woman. I’m getting to a place where it’s great to embrace different kinds of characters which are not what people expect of me.
