The actress grew up on a London estate and became a star in The Good Wife. Now she’s doing Shakespeare opposite David Tennant and making a podcast series
“Ta-da!” Cush Jumbo emerges at the top of the stairs, doing jazz hands and joking about how she’s made an entrance. The actress has been recording a podcast with the American writer Armistead Maupin for her new series, Origins.
“I’m very aware that everybody’s got a podcast,” she says as a disclaimer. “My dog’s got a podcast …” What makes hers different, she argues, is that it tries to “find out what makes people in the public eye tick. When you’re famous, people often know your story but not who you really are.”
She asks the friends she has made over the course of her career, from playing Lucca Quinn in The Good Wife and spin-off series The Good Fight to more recently as a female Hamlet at the Old Vic, about their formative moments. As well as Maupin, who regaled her with stories about his cocktail parties with Rock Hudson and Doris Day, guests include Anna Wintour (who spoke about her relationship with her father and how her grandchildren used to call her “Dog”, causing confusion in public), David Schwimmer and Poppy Delevingne….