Yahoo Lifestyle Harriet Walter on playing Margaret Thatcher in new Channel 4 series
Harriet Walter has never been afraid to shy away from difficult characters.
The 74-year-old has an impressively varied portfolio spanning TV and theatre, with her recent roles including the glacial Deborah Welton in Ted Lasso, the frosty Lady Caroline Collingwood in Succession, and deadly Dasha in Killing Eve.
But her latest project sees her take on perhaps one of the most complicated and divisive figures yet: Margaret Thatcher.
In Channel 4’s Brian and Maggie, Walter stars opposite Steve Coogan’s take on political journalist Brian Walden, with the pair acting out the infamous 1989 televised interview that many consider to be the turning point of Thatcher’s previously celebrated political career. The Iron Lady, famously not for turning, floundered and stumbled over Walden’s intense line of questioning. It set in motion a chain of events that saw Thatcher resigning just a year later.
Thatcher was famously encouraged by Laurence Olivier, as well as TV executives, to visit a voice coach to help lower her higher, feminine pitch in order to sound more authoritative.
But Walter, who recently gave Shakespeare’s most famous female characters a fresh perspective in her new book She Speaks!, believes that this sort of coaching should no longer be necessary for women in senior positions.
Speaking at the Harper’s Bazaar literary salon, she told audiences: “We should all start from a level playing field, particularly as we’re out there – women are in parliament and we’re CEOs. Really and truly, I think women are better communicators than men in general.
“Having played Margaret Thatcher, people often try and go closer to the man’s register, to get the authority that a man would have in the workplace. As women, should we not say, 'No, I’m different, I’m a different thing. I speak with a high voice and I have a different experience?'
She Speaks! - Harriet Walter
“I’d love us to have the courage to do the latter, but the fact is, a high voice is closer to an infantile voice and doesn’t have the same authority as a deep voice. It doesn’t have the same authority in our culture and that needs to be addressed, so that we take high voices as seriously as low voices.”
However, Walter added that one close female friend shared some advice for women who find themselves struggling to speak in male-dominated fields.
“If you’re the only woman in the room full of men, be sure to speak first,” she said. “Ask for a glass of water or ask for them to open a window. Then, when it comes to having a conversation, they are used to hearing your voice.”
Brian and Maggie begins on Channel 4 on Wednesday 29 January
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