Nell Hardy

How did you get into theatre?
Straight from school, I went to Cambridge for a year to study English. My father was determined that at least one of his children had to go to Oxbridge. I had an interest in being left alone, so I did what I was told and worked very hard, because it was quite an abusive household and I was perfectly happy to lock myself in a room, study constantly and be out of the picture. But then when I was there, I was surrounded by people rather like those I had worked so hard to get away from. I promised my parents I’d get to the end of first year, then I took a year out, did some waitressing and worked with the youth theatre I was a member of. I got some really valuable experience working with young people and adults with special needs, which is still a big part of the teaching work I do alongside theatre.

Where did you train in acting?
At Royal Central School of Speech and Drama – while I was there, I uncovered some memories of childhood abuse that were profoundly distressing and had a nervous breakdown [which meant I left the course early]. My father wasn’t too keen on the fact I had brought these memories back and he made me homeless. Two years later, as I was finally put into an emergency hostel, I went about auditioning, got myself on Spotlight and set up a young company of 16-25s in association with Jacksons Lane.

What was a pivotal decision in your acting career?
There was a really important moment of decision for me: it was the first year I was trying to get roles, when if you don’t have a proper agent and you haven’t graduated from a drama school, people don’t really pay much attention to you. I was lucky enough to get the title role in Alice in Wonderland with the wonderful Pandemonium Performance Company, which did annual shows in an old cemetery in Stoke Newington. About two weeks before we opened Alice, my agent at the time said he had got me a role in one or two episodes of The Last Kingdom, which was presented to me as my big break. There would be a costume fitting in middle of the run of Alice that they absolutely couldn’t move, so there was an expectation that I would just turned around to the people I was rehearsing with and say: “Sorry, you’ll have to find yourself a new central character.” I thought about whether I wanted to be the kind of artist that gives up on a commitment she genuinely believes in to chase something financially more profitable or one who remembers that nobody’s in this industry for the money and keeps doing the work she wants to do, while getting by however she can. I realised that actually I want to make the art that I want to make, and I stayed with Alice.