Actress Anna Maxwell Martin obliterates the stereotype of the ever-so-proper British matron sipping tea from a porcelain cup. Leaning back in her straight-backed chair and plopping her arm on the table in front of her, Martin admits that one of her failings is her penchant for telling the unvarnished truth. It’s a quality that rarely abuses actors.
“More recently I’m trying to learn not to say everything that comes into my mouth,” she laughs. “I’m really known in the U.K. as having no filters. When there’s something live or I get asked a lot to be on these celebrity (talk) shows, sometimes I just want to hear my agent have kittens on the phone because she’s so worried about what will come out of my mouth the first 15 minutes of the show. I'm trying to install some filters into mouth and brain. I’m only semi-successful,” she giggles.
Her candid attitude has gotten her into hot water before. Like the time she admitted she’d shoplifted to a local publication, a tale that found its way to the infamous British tabloids.
