‘Motherland’ Star Diane Morgan on Her Most Beloved Roles, From Philomena Cunk to Mandy

variety.com:

K.J. Yossman Actor, writer and director Diane Morgan was in her teens when she first tried her hand at improv, an experience which first gave the “very shy, very quiet” 15-year-old a chance to step out of her shell and play a different character. “I think my whole world opened up, basically,” says Morgan of that moment, ahead of receiving Variety and the Edinburgh TV Festival’s 2022 Outstanding Achievement Award. “I’d always been completely invisible and then, suddenly, I was the funny one.” So it was unsurprising when Morgan decided she would try to pursue it professionally, even if it wasn’t the most obvious choice for a girl from Bolton. “I always thought I’d make a career out of it, even though everyone was telling me I wouldn’t make a career out of it and that it was insane,” she recalls. “Because I was from Bolton, and, you know, [most] people wanted to be hairdressers.” It helped that, on her father’s side, there were actors in the family, including “Coronation Street” star Julie Goodyear and Oscar-nominated Frank Finlay.

Her mother, “who was a bit more cautious,” took a bit more persuading and suggested that Morgan pursue a career in graphic design.

Morgan, who was good at art, applied for art school before having a change of heart. “I was in an interview for art school and I suddenly thought: ‘I can’t do this, this is the wrong thing.’ Even though I can draw, and I will probably make a career as a graphic designer or whatever, I will always regret it if I don’t try to do what I want.

And I just had this feeling that I had to really just forget this and go for what I absolutely wanted, and my whole heart was in.