I was brought up in a Catholic home with 10 brothers and sisters but I wouldn't say I was particularly religious. I went to Mass every week and said my prayers but in my teens I was just like any other normal young girl I wanted to leave school, go to university and get a life. I did quite well at school and got into Birmingham University, where I studied law. After that I joined a legal practice and began my law training. It was after I had been on a trip to Lourdes with my mum that I started to feel differently. At 60, Sir Anthony appears to be an actor in peak condition - maybe the answer is to have an occasional theatrical restorative. Olivier was still playing Othello at 60 and then Edgar in Dance of Death - a very suitable role for Hopkins.

One of the good things about theatre is that it gives you a little time to dwell on your madness, but a great opportunity to use it.. Sister Mary Joseph I didn't have a vision or hear voices when I got the calling Something just quietly changed in my life. I used to be quite materialistic and loved shopping, especially for clothes But suddenly all these things seemed completely unimportant. There an actor's skill, sensitivity and power is tested to the limit and thus the personality re-identifies itself. Madness is a form of alienation from the soul.And if I'm not mistaken, it was the theatre that helped restore Hopkins's career when he returned after years of Hollywood drift.

That's why many a movie actor who was stage-trained likes to return to the font as a means of recovering their ego. An intelligent audience confirms you as their guide - their Prometheus carrying the fire of inspiration. A bunch of spotty popcorn eaters slurping Pepsi and watching Silence of the Lambs is not likely to do that, but [Hopkins's role in] Remains of the Day was a perfect performance any actor would have been proud of for years.Nevertheless, without wishing to bang the luvvie drum, theatre for an actor can be a great restorer, the baptismal river where your sins are washed off. You might feel pride, be heartened, even ennobled and believe yourself to be an emissary of literature, a communicator or a teacher.

Obsessions, compulsions and perfectionism become a few of the many psychic disturbances that we are prone to. Some of us have managed to balance an acting life with writing or directing, thus the child becomes a parent, able to create for others.While theatre can be stress-making, a great and demanding role can be liberating and purging - an opportunity to vent all shades of emotion, including those of madness in the service of the character This has a purgative effect. Since theatre usually deals with language in a heightened form, the roles you are playing are likely to enhance rather than deflate or humiliate.You cannot feel shame playing Lear, Hamlet, Macbeth or Chekov. However, these actors are not burdened with Hopkins's finer perceptions. Madness is directly linked to forcing a highly developed ego to swallow garbage.