After more than 40 years in film and TV, the star of Our Friends in the North is about to share the screen with Harry Styles. She talks about 90s sexism, her start in drama and playing the villain
I’ve actually seen Gina McKee in real life once before, about 15 years ago, on the tube. There were only three of us in the carriage. I whispered urgently yet extremely quietly to my then-husband: “That’s Gina McKee,” and he boomed out in this huge man-voice: “That is not Gillian McKeith.” The ghost of a smile crossed her face, which was otherwise averted in a palpable desire not to get drawn in. I drew three conclusions, one of which I knew already: this actor has an exquisitely readable face – her eyes can throw out 100 distinct emotions a second; she does not like the limelight, not at all; and I bet she’s nice. Happy to report, having met her properly on a hotel rooftop in London, that I am once again completely right.
McKee looks exactly the same now, at 58, as she did back then, indeed, the same as she did in 1996’s Our Friends in the North, though middle-aged people always say that kind of thing about each other. She is tall and fine-boned, with a slightly grave set to her face, complicated by frequent bursts of laughter.
