Sally Phillips: ‘I accidentally lived in a brothel’

‘I’m tired and scared,’ says Sally Phillips, after a day of rehearsals for Relics, the new play she will be performing in at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre in London from June 18. ‘It’s my first time on stage in 20 years,’ she elaborates, ‘and I am finding it hard to learn the lines.’

Of course, a seasoned pro like Sally will have no issue when opening night arrives. From playing Bridget Jones’s foul-mouthed journalist pal Shazzer, to Miranda Hart’s irritatingly posh school friend Tilly in Miranda (‘Bear with, bear with’), she’s a beloved face of British acting.

Born in Hong Kong in 1970, it was the sketch comedy TV show Smack the Pony that really catapulted Sally into the spotlight in 1999. Alongside Fiona Allen and Doon Mackichan, the Channel 4 show saw Sally’s silly side, cultivated at the renowned French clown school École Philippe Gaulier, thrive. Roles in Jam & Jerusalem, co-written by Jennifer Saunders, I’m Alan Partridge and Armando Iannucci's satire Veep (where she played the prime minister of Finland, of all people) also put her on the map.

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You could argue that the most notable role she’s played was her one-woman show performed while at university, Benadetta, the Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy, for which she covered herself in animal blood (she told The Guardian this experience was so foul that the next time she had a period she felt physically sick). But I think more people have probably seen Bridget Jones.

She’s also a passionate advocate for better understanding of, and support for people who have, Down’s Syndrome. Her 2016 documentary A World Without Down’s Syndrome? Explored the ethics of pregnancy screening and was inspired by her son, Olly.

In Ben Ockrent’s new comedy Relics, she plays Liv, the eldest daughter in a family of four siblings who reunite intent on sorting out their deceased mother’s home before a family secret sends everyone spiralling. ‘With the four siblings, each one is behaving as per the birth order,’ Sally explains. ‘So, the eldest is pretty bossy — that’s me, bonjour,’ she says, almost slipping into her Miranda character for a second, ‘the youngest is unspeakably cool and a bit diffident, the second oldest is a bit of a rebel and the final sibling is the peacekeeper/doormat.’

Sally has two younger brothers herself. Like me, she is the eldest daughter. I ask if she thinks she’s an atypical eldest child. ‘I think all eldest children think they’re atypical,’ she says, sagely. ‘I do have a sense of responsibility, definitely and I try not to be bossy, but I probably am,’ she admits.

The one role that has followed her around the most throughout her career has undoubtedly been Shazzer in the much beloved Bridget Jones films, which spanned from 2001-2025. It finally finished last year with Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy. ‘I always make the joke that, in the Bridget Jones films, I was the one who didn’t get to snog Hugh Grant, Colin Firth, Patrick Dempsey, Chiwetel Ejiofor or Leah Woodall, and so my character spent 30 years swearing in frustration,’ she says. When they wrapped last year she burst into tears, as did Renée Zellweger. ‘Lucky me, that’s all I can say. It could so easily have been someone else.’

Of course, it could have. But with her trademark zany mannerisms and all round sunny cheerfulness, I doubt another actor could have said ‘f**k’ so many times with such persistently loveability. Let's all just cross our fingers that her next role isn’t another where she stars along three of her character’s siblings, that way it may bring with it the many snogs with handsome men she was so denied in Bridget Jones.

Your aesthetic hero

That’s really hard to choose. I love Joanna Hogg, the film director. I love her work. It hits a part of me that other things don’t reach. I think she’s amazing, and also, she dresses really well — but if I was talking about just how people dress then I’d probably say… can I have the flexibility of looking sometimes like Katharine Hepburn and sometimes like Drew Barrymore in ET? [‘And of sometimes looking like ET too?’ I suggest]. Yes, that’s good. Drew Barrymore and ET by day and Katharine Hepburn when I’m trying to pretend to be a grown up. There would be something amazing about actually being ET. Just going: ‘I don't care,’ blanket wrapped around head, sitting in the basket of a Lime Bike, demanding to be cycled across the sky.

The possession that you’d never sell

None of my photo albums. We used to do this thing with the boys called ‘slidey painting’, where I’d get a big sheet of paper in the garden, squeeze paint on to it and the boys would slide up and down over it [she shows me the picture in question]. I also have an amazing one of Olly. Jennifer Saunders had said: ‘Have you ever put your baby in a wig? It’s hilarious.’ [She shows me the photo. It is indeed hilarious, a tiny baby with a mass of curly brown hair perched atop his small head]. Renée also gave us a lovely photo of the four of us [Bridget, Jude, Shazzer and Tom] on set for the last film.

An exhibition that has really impressed you

I really love going to art galleries, it’s how I chill out. I particularly like going to the National Portrait Gallery. I think I like going there, because in a way it's a bit like what I do, in how an artist melds with the subject to create something else. Recently, I just loved the David Hockney exhibition at the Serpentine. I love the way that he's keeping on discovering, and how his work is really about the process. He’s always asking the question: ‘How do you make people feel?’

A book you found inspiring

This Is Not a Pity Memoir by Abby Morgan. She is a really amazing screenwriter who co-wrote some of the Bridget Jones’s. Her husband had a reaction to some medication that he was on, which they hadn't been warned about, had a seizure of sorts, woke up, and recognised everyone except her. He thought that she had been sent by the government to spy on him, and so she had a year of being in hospital trying to care for this person who thought she was a spy, and getting cancer because of the stress of it all, at the same time as having to parent the kids. It’s clever as she also explores the idea of how the film of your life that’s happening in your head isn’t at all like real life. It’s generous of her to share that.

Your favourite painting

Probably one my kids did. Olly is 14 now, but when he was 10 he had to leave school for various reasons — he’s neurodiverse. It was a very tricky year for him, and he spent the whole year painting our four dogs. They were pretty good paintings. I also collect postcards when I go to exhibitions and I use them to create characters, and put them on a board in my dressing room. I have a Martin Parr one of a boy and a girl both with Mr Whippy’s. They’ve got it on their noses and the girl’s dress is blowing in the wind.

The music that you work to

I don't actually work to music, but I like a dance break, and then I like silly music, things like Manu Chao. My cousin was in a band which split up years ago called Pete and the Pirates, they have some good sort of silly pop things too.

The last podcast you listened to

Now, this I have a funny answer for. Because of the play, I listened to a podcast called Tree Lady Talks — an entire episode that was about a tree protection officer.

The last thing of note you bought for yourself

Probably a print of a Peter Doig painting called Imaginary Boys.

Who would play you in a film of your life

I mean, obviously it depends if it's a good film or a bad film. I love Jessie Buckley, like everyone on earth does. She's just got a light energy, and she's amazing. She was my favourite actress even before Hamnet. If it was a bit of a shit film, and by this I mean a made-for-TV thing, playing young me I could do a lot worse than Charly Clive, who’s recently been in Rooster. She’s extremely cool and really funny. I also love Elf Lyons. She’s too tall to play me, but she’s properly out there. Like a cross between a pixie and a giraffe who’s very funny and very likable.

What you’d take to a desert island

A pop-up spa and a speed boat.

The thing that gets you up in the morning

The dogs and fear, a bit at the moment. I’m scared of journalists and theatre reviewers. I’m not really scared of the public, they’re really nice. With the reviewers, it’s not the same. It’s often about them, you know? It used to be the fact that you could console yourself with the fact that it was just fish and chip paper, but now everything exists forever, so your bad review will be there for your great-grandchildren to find.

The items you collect

Moomin mugs. I love them. Also, I think, if you're under house arrest with children, as it were, they depict family scenes, so I noticed myself having quiet commentary on who's being what at the moment. For example, if someone's having a tantrum, I might give them a Little My mug where she’s [here she mimes having a tantrum]. They don’t even notice.

A hotel you could go back and back to

I do go back to the Hotel Kung Carl in Stockholm a lot and they have sponsored a friend and I who are writing a film — they let us stay there for super cheap. They also sponsored the first Down’s Syndrome arts and culture festival in Stockholm, so they’ve been really great. If I can have two I would also have the Casa Monti Hotel in Rome, because I used to live in the city. It was not a dive exactly, but not glamorous. I accidentally lived in a brothel. It was a building that had various flats and there were rooms which were used by prostitutes. There were these madams on the door all day and all night, so it felt very safe, because I was working in a bar late at night, and when I’d come home at 3am they'd be guarding the door. If anyone was looking for sex or anything, they could get it elsewhere — they weren't going to bother me. This area now is a really shi-shi artist area where this super deluxe hotel is. I would like to go there and relive my youth.

The most memorable meal you’ve ever had

My partner had a, I won't say midlife crisis, but he went and trained at Leiths as a chef. He didn’t become a chef, but he has just won a medal in the World Marmalade Awards. Anyway, we did a couple of supper clubs, which never made any money whatsoever, but the first one of those we called ‘Fond of Mushrooms’. We held it near the Cricket Pavilion at Kew Gardens which is where the Fungarium is. Lee, from the Fungarium, came and gave a lecture and a mushroom band, called The Fun Guys came and one member of the band's dad was actually the mushroom warlock of Glastonbury. We also recreated the feeling of taking hallucinogenic mushrooms and I did a mushroom reading and there were also mushroom-based jokes and a five-course mushroom menu. It was absolutely insane and so much fun.

The best present you’ve ever received

Can I do top three? My friend gave me a surprise night out at Secret Cinema at my lowest ebb to see Moulin Rouge with 10 of my closest friends. My partner had a painting made of us walking the dogs, but at number one, it has to be when my youngest son made me a Monopoly board by hand. It must have taken him weeks and months.

Relics runs at Lyric Hammersmith Theatre from June 18 to July 18. For tickets see the theatre's website. Sally will also feature in The Hairdresser Mysteries which will air on BBC One soon.