What was the question again? Sorry, I’m dreadful…” It’s the third time – or is it the fourth? – that Shirley Henderson has said this during our interview. Not that she has anything to apologise for; I honestly can’t remember what the question was either by this point. Nor do I much care. It’s hard not to feel hypnotised, in fact, as the actor drifts away on a meandering, mesmeric tide of anecdotes, reflections and tangents in her soporific, Scottish lilt.
Appearing far younger than her soon-to-be 60 years, Henderson is instantly recognisable, having barely changed since her star-making turns in Bridget Jones’s Diary (as high-flying “am I codependent?” financier Jude) and Harry Potter (as the brilliantly comic ghost Moaning Myrtle) at the turn of the millennium. Bizarrely, both roles required her to hide in the loo and sob. There’s still an innocence and guilelessness to her wide, hazel eyes and thick, untamed brows set in that familiar, childlike face – as if she’s somehow managed to live outside of time itself, immune to its ruthlessness and ravages. Her famously small 5ft 1in frame is today wrapped in a big black coat, her soft brown hair casually pinned back, as she chats to me over Zoom from her home in Fife.
