Catherine Tate
Catherine Tate
Catherine Tateis an English comedian, actress and writer. She has won numerous awards for her work on the sketch comedy series The Catherine Tate Show as well as being nominated for an International Emmy Award and seven BAFTA Awards. Following the success of The Catherine Tate Show, Tate played Donna Noble in the 2006 Christmas special of Doctor Who and later reprised her role, becoming the Doctor's companion for the fourth series in 2008. In 2011, she began a recurring...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionTV Actress
Date of Birth12 May 1968
CityLondon, England
'Writing' always means 'not writing' to me because I will do anything to put it off. I think this is mainly because writing anything down and then handing it over to a third party - especially in comedy - is such an exposing act that you naturally want to delay the process.
I went from an unemployed actor's life to doing stand-up comedy, and that was fortuitous. It's not the usual way the crow flies, going from being in a TV sketch show to playing one of Shakespeare's finest characters, but, hey, that's the way it has happened.
We say to her, 'Seriously, people will think you are taking the mickey out of them if you say that with that level of sincerity, because we don't really do that over here'.
I tried four times to get into the Central School of Speech and Drama before I got accepted. I started when I was 17, which was too young, in retrospect, and finally went when I was 21. I just kept plugging away. Determined? Yeah, I think I was.
I've never really thought I'd get married. It's not that I'm suspicious of it or anything like that, it's just that I don't have a reference for it because my mum wasn't.
I've realised I need a gnawing, nagging, anxious doubt when I wake at 4 A.M.
She is genuinely adorable, but she will say to people she doesn't know, 'Have an amazing day',
Nothing is ever going to be as important or as exciting as a baby. Everyone has their highs and lows, but if you've got that one constant in your life - in my case, a baby - the highs are never going to be as big, and the lows are never going to be as bad.
I don't know why, but people tend to look at stand-ups and think they can act, which actually isn't the case. But never mind. I thought: if that's the area where they're looking, then that's the area where I'll put myself - even as a means to an end. And it was.
Any degree of success or achievement for me is only ever a relief. My version of getting carried away is: 'Mmm, that wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.'
I was not a 'Doctor Who' fan. As a kid, I thought it was scary and for boys.
I like doing both TV and live stuff, though it's nice to mix it up.
Don't take criticism personally; take from it what's useful. Apply it and move on to something better.
There's no game plan when it comes to thinking up new characters; inspiration can come from anything - from a wig I've seen to an expression I've heard someone use.