Penelope Wilton: ‘They wanted me to tone down my death in Shaun of the Dead. It was too frightening’

<p>The venerable screen and stage star reveals why she insisted on meeting a bloody end in Edgar Wright’s zomcom, loved working with Ricky Gervais and which of her film roles has the biggest Rastafarian fanbase</p><p><strong>Many actors transform from one version of themselves into another, like Al Pacino around the time of Scarface. Others approach their older selves until they inhabit them, like </strong><strong>Jim Broadbent</strong><strong>. You have remained your same self: graceful, poised, elegant and eloquent. How do you do it? </strong><em>DrHugbine<br></em>One has absolutely no understanding of how one comes across. Well, I certainly don’t. I’m delighted [you] think that about me. I’ve never thought of myself as an older person. There are far more interesting things to think about – what’s going on in the characters’ minds, where they find themselves in the situation given by the playwright or the screenwriter. I think I’ve kept a naivety. Michael Grandage, a director who I know very well, saw Mrs Warren’s Profession on YouTube, which I did with Coral Browne a hundred years ago when I was 24, and said: “Physically, you’ve changed. But you haven’t changed.” I don’t know quite how to take that. Perhaps I’ve stayed the same.</p><p><strong>I can’t imagine being in any situation so terrible that the words, “Don’t worry – Penelope Wilton’s here” wouldn’t make things better. But what makes you lose your temper? </strong><em>CHARISMATA and arch54lg<br></em>This morning, I was driving to do some shopping. I cannot bear people who hoot behind you before the lights have changed. Motorbikes do it a lot. Especially those Deliveroo people. When they do hoot me, I go even slower. On a wider scale, listening to the news – I’m in a furious temper before I even start the day. But you have to listen. You have to take note of what’s happening in Gaza. It makes me