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" 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

Live

Weird

Time

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" I started working in London, and I've been free-lance ever since. "

" When I was asked to read a screenplay about Margaret Thatcher, I think I felt immediate apprehension. "

" I have been very lucky, and I think it all goes back to state subsidy for the arts. I gained my training and confidence and credentials in the not-for-profit world, and in England, that does not mean on the fringe of things. It means right at the centre. "

" The power of a close-up can be extraordinary, but you have to have actors who are able to reveal themselves. "

" Art is all about giving yourself these terrifying challenges, these peaks to climb. You're at the bottom of the mountain at the start of every new project thinking, 'Am I going to make it?' "

" Do as much theatre as you can while you're at school. "

" Onstage, there's a separation between character and audience; onscreen, you can go to a deeper place. "

" As a woman, I think Margaret Thatcher felt she had to be ten times more prepared than the men. "

Phyllida Lloyd

Prepared

Men

" 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. "

" To have Hollywood tell me or other women like me that we're not a market that interests them is silly. Good stories work. "

Phyllida Lloyd

Women

Silly

" Margaret Thatcher was pro-choice. She voted to decriminalize homosexuality. Was not profoundly religious. She was very liberal on social issues. "

" I realised you could become fat and bald as a director and still remain employable. "

" It was extraordinary to experience 'Mamma Mia!' What an injection of good spirit and heart it was. "

" Directing is quite a nuts-and-bolts thing. It's a mixture of creating an atmosphere in which actors can feel safe enough to be dangerous. "

" If you're an actor, you have to look spiffing. But as the director, you don't need to look so glamorous. "

" It's the job of the artist to take something that everybody thinks they know about, they've made a decision about, they will be immovable on, and to shine a light on it. "

" In London, it's quite a rarefied activity to be on an analyst's couch. "

" If you have bad hair and you bite your nails, nobody expects that you can't direct plays. "

" Opera is too obsessed with buildings. "

" 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

Mother

Good

" Frankly, I find it very odd that, in a population that's more than 50 per cent of women, that Hollywood isn't producing more movies to cater to that audience. The demographic is being grossly underserved, in my opinion. "

" 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. "

" I realized that I didn't think I could stand the psychological battering that actors have to withstand. I just felt I wasn't cut out for that kind of self-promotion. "

" In the not-for-profit world, I never felt that being female was an impediment. I was, however, given my break into commercial theatre by a female producer, Judy Craymer, and women - in particular, Donna Langley, president of production at Universal - were crucial in giving 'Mamma Mia' a home in Hollywood. "

" I wanted to be an actress from about the age of five. "

" One is always attracted to pieces of theatre with great roles for women. "

" I was given a mask of myself by Frances Barber when we opened 'Julius Caesar.' I looked much younger and prettier. Wearing it was certainly cheaper than Botox. "

" I think courage is commensurate with your fear - if you lack imagination and you're fearless, that's not courage to me. "

" I think I wanted to do something that retained the improvised chaos of 'Mamma Mia' the theatre show which set it apart from all the slick packaged productions. "

" Margaret Thatcher always felt like an outsider in her party. "