I was hellbent on going to drama school, but my mother, rightly, panicked and persuaded me to go to university on the grounds that a degree would be ‘something to fall back on.’ Whilst at college, I realised I wasn’t good enough or robust enough to be an actress. Phyllida Lloyd Read Quote
There’s something about doing Shakespeare with a single gender, whether it is all-male or all-female, that opens up certain possibilities. You are able to throw the behavior of the men into a particular relief and be playful within a slightly larger-than-life way with it. Phyllida Lloyd Read Quote
Shakespeare was writing about his time, and it was a time when women were beginning to demand a voice, demand a say in their lives for one reason or another, mainly to do with the economics of the time. Phyllida Lloyd Read Quote
I realised you could become fat and bald as a director and still remain employable. Phyllida Lloyd Read Quote
I worked on live studio drama, which was one weird aberration in the 1980s. I worked on the ‘Battle of Waterloo,’ and my job was to reload the Brown Bess muskets – the only time the audience realised it was live was when somebody leant on a button and plunged the whole studio into blackout. Phyllida Lloyd Read Quote
The power of a close-up can be extraordinary, but you have to have actors who are able to reveal themselves. Phyllida Lloyd Read Quote
I think courage is commensurate with your fear – if you lack imagination and you’re fearless, that’s not courage to me. Phyllida Lloyd Read Quote
It was extraordinary to experience ‘Mamma Mia!’ What an injection of good spirit and heart it was. Phyllida Lloyd Read Quote
When I began to direct, I discovered that I was much more comfortable than I was acting. Phyllida Lloyd Read Quote
You can’t wait for someone to discover you; you have to just get on and do it. Have confidence that directing is a very suitable job for a woman – with our gift for collaboration, listening, and reading the nuance of things. Phyllida Lloyd Read Quote
