From sitcom queen to stage colossus, Sheridan Smith’s career has been one of award-winning highs – and dramatic lows. Now, she’s gearing up for her West End return, she tells Olivia Marks. Photographs by Willow Williams. Styling by Jessica Gerardi
In the first scenes of John Cassavetes’s 1977 film Opening Night, Myrtle Gordon – an adored-yet-troubled actress at the height of her career, played by a typically spellbinding Gena Rowlands – watches from the backseat of her chauffeured car as a young, obsessive fan, desperate to get closer to her, is hit and killed by another vehicle. The lead in a new play destined for Broadway and already on edge, Myrtle starts to seriously spiral. “Manny,” she pleads with the play’s director, “I’m in trouble. I’m not acting.”