Brenda Blethyn: 'I don't care about the way I look' Brenda Blethyn talks about class, getting remarried in later life, and a late-blossoming career that only took off at 40 By Daphne Lockyer7:00AM BST 29 Apr 2012 (TELEGRAPH)

Brenda Blethyn is an expert in making herself ugly. “I couldn’t care less about the way I look on screen,” she says. “If you did, you’d never play the interesting parts.” Blethyn can currently be found on Sunday evenings in Vera, the critically acclaimed – and hugely popular – crime drama. Based on the Ann Cleeves novels, she plays Detective Chief Inspector Vera Stanhope, a well-upholstered Geordie woman of a certain age.

She is “big, fat and ugly”, says Blethyn, who wears her hair limp for the role. “And you also let this lot go,” she continues, unflexing a set of jowls that you wouldn’t normally notice.

We meet at what used to be the old Swan Hunter Shipyard in Newcastle, close to where the series is filmed. In the flesh, the actress looks considerably younger than her 66 years. She’s down to earth, giggly and good humoured with a Trojan work ethic –­ “I’m never late, I turn up knowing my lines, and I’m very clean,” she laughs.

In fact, today she is nursing the mother of all colds, not that she’s complaining. “I’m looking forward to going home and having a bit of rest, maybe cook myself a pork chop in my own kitchen.” While other actresses are always complaining that the roles decrease as the years mount up, Blethyn’s stock just keeps on rising. “I’m the reverse of actresses whose careers seem to peter out at the age of 40. Mine seemed to get better from that point on.”

Indeed, Blethyn OBE has twice been nominated for an Oscar – once as Cynthia, a woman tracked down by the daughter she gave up for adoption in Mike Leigh’s Secrets and Lies; and as Jane Horrocks’ blousy, alcohol-soaked mother in Little Voice. Many of the characters in her repertoire are emotionally broken. “Vera, for example, grew up in a funny family. Her mother died when she was young, her father was an oddball who hid his wealth by living like a hermit. Vera’s a loner too, but that doesn’t mean she’s lonely. She’s very happy in her own company.”

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