Romola Garai is riding high. The British actress, who shot to fame 20 years ago with leading roles in period dramas including Atonement and Emma, is in high demand after winning an Olivier Award last year.
Romola, 43, was named Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her performance in the West End production The Years, and was also nominated for her critically acclaimed turn in Giant alongside John Lithgow.
Now, she is back on TV screens in the type of primetime British drama that audiences know and love her for. But one institution she won’t be joining is the James Bond franchise.
“It’s a laughable idea,” she says when asked in this exclusive interview if she’d be open to playing a female version of 007.
“It’s so amazing to me when you hear about actors who take on roles like that, because it eats up ten, 15 years of your life and you basically have to spend that entire time in the gym.
“I would not want to do that. I have kids,” says the actress, who has two children, a daughter and a son, with her husband, the actor and writer Sam Hoare.
Romola’s “completely normal” family life
Despite her illustrious career, Romola says that she lives a “completely normal” life.
“That’s something I really value,” says the Hong Kong-born star, who shows flashes of self-deprecation throughout our chat. “I really would not in any way enjoy having the responsibilities of being more recognisable.”
© ITV“It was nice to see a show written by a man, where the [woman’s] problem of how to be present for her children, fulfil the demands of her career and keep her marriage alive felt really present.”
The actress landed her first leading role at the age of 20, in the 2003 romance I Capture the Castle, and appeared in a string of major films – including Vanity Fair and Atonement – early in her career.
She went on to star in the BBC’s 2009 adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma and in the Emmy Award-winning newsroom drama The Hour.
More recently, she was seen by millions of viewers in Netflix’s film Scoop, which dramatised Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s infamous 2019 interview with the BBC, and in the second season of the BBC’s acclaimed thriller Vigil, which stars Suranne Jones and Rose Leslie.
© World Productions/Mark MainzAfter two decades in the industry, she says she has grown more sure of herself when it comes to her work. “I’m quite boundaried about things I don’t feel comfortable with,” she says.
“Particularly as I’ve got older, I’m much better about saying: ‘I know that I’ll say yes to this now and in three months I’m going to wish I hadn’t done it, so I won’t.'”
Romola’s role in Betrayal
This year, Romola is fronting not one but two ITV dramas. In the first, Betrayal, which airs in February, she plays Claire, the hard-working GP wife of MI5 officer John (Endeavour’s Shaun Evans). Her character is struggling to balance her responsibilities as a wife, mother and career woman – something Romola can relate to.
“It was really nice to see a show written by a man, where the [woman’s] problem of how to be present for her children, fulfil the demands of her career and keep her marriage alive – and not get buried under resentment – felt really present,” she says.
© ITV“How you divide yourself between other people becomes a big conversation, and the fact that there’s nothing left over for yourself at the end becomes a potential endpoint for a lot of women.”
Romola’s on-screen marriage is turbulent, with Claire and John taking part in couples counselling following an infidelity, but her own relationship couldn’t be more different.
“I really enjoy being married to someone who does what I do, because they respect it. They understand why it’s difficult, and also why it’s easy.”
“I really enjoy being married to someone who does what I do, because they respect it,” says the actress, whose husband of 12 years is known for his roles in Dickensian, Outlander and Showtrial.
“I think they understand why it’s difficult, and also why it’s easy,” she adds, before admitting that there are some “downsides” to their careers. “There are points when neither of us know when the next pay cheque is coming in.”
© Max Cisotti/Dave Benett/Getty ImAnother advantage of working in the same industry as her partner is the opportunity for the couple to collaborate. In 2022, Romola directed Sam in his one-man play Press, in which he starred as a former tabloid journalist haunted by his unethical past. “It was a really interesting experience,” she says.
“A lot of directing is telling someone what to do, and in marriage, you resist that, so we had to agree a set of rules. But it was great as well. I was spending every day with someone I really liked.”
Romola’s packed schedule
Right now, Romola is booked and busy. Not only does she have another ITV drama in the pipeline – the scandalous romance Adultery, in which she stars opposite Dominic Cooper – but she is also set to direct the forthcoming period drama Monstrous Beauty, starring Dominic West, Fiona Shaw and Mia Threapleton, who is the daughter of the Hollywood actress Kate Winslet.
The film is “an evolving project”, she says. “It’s a difficult climate for film – it’s hard to squeeze through the funding. But I’m still working on it and there are some great actors attached to it.”
Does she think women need to get behind the camera to ensure that more female-focused stories are told? “There are lots of great producers of all sexes trying to tell different stories, but I still think that there’s a resistance,” the actress says.
© ITV“I know of couples in my own life where the guy gets to decide which movie they watch, and if it’s a female-driven show or if there’s a rom-com aspect to it, they’ll go, ‘No, that’s not for me.’
“I think men are still afraid of being seen to be interested in things that they don’t think make them look masculine, whatever that means,” she continues. “So I think it’s more of a problem with the audience than with the industry.”
Romola says it’s down to families to have “difficult conversations” with the men in their homes about the lack of female representation in the shows and films they are watching.
“I get particularly annoyed about it because of my kids. I’m watching children’s TV shows where I’m saying to my poor son, who’s only eight, ‘Have you noticed that there’s no female characters in this?’ And everyone’s fine with it.”
Future projects
Looking ahead, Romola returns to the stage in March for a production of A Doll’s House at the Almeida Theatre in London. After that, she’s hoping to focus on writing.
“I have lots of projects that I’m working on; some of them are period films, adaptations of novels and crime thrillers,” she says.
Will she ever slow down? “I’m hoping to take some time off, which would be great, and do nothing at all over the summer.”
Betrayal starts on ITV1 and ITVX on 8 February.
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