Katherine Kelly would rather 'risk failure' more than a decade after leaving Coronation Street
Katherine Kelly - who shot to fame as Becky Granger in 'Coronation Street' - is happy to "risk failure" in her career for the right project.
Katherine Kelly is happy to "risk failure" in her career.
The 45-year-old actress is now starring as psychotherapist Dr Sophia Craven in the Paramount+ drama series 'The Crow Girl' - which centres on the investigations of a series of connected murders - and admitted that she would always choose an "ambitious" project over one that lacks potential.
She told Hello magazine: "I've done a lot of character-heavy stories, where the characters are the story and the plot is secondary to that. This has a strong plot that is fast and dark and gallops at such a pace, but not at the cost of characters. This feels as though both are striding along together at the same time.
"I would rather work on something that's ambitious and has all that potential and therefore comes with a risk of failure, too. I'd rather take that risk than do something that's safer.
"Whenever you get offered a role and you get a script, you open it and think: 'Please let it be this, please let it have all these possibilities.' So when it does, it's a giddying experience, and there's gratitude because they don't come along often."
Katherine found fame as diamond-in-the-rough Becky Granger on the ITV1 soap opera 'Coronation Street' in 2006 and stayed in the role until 2012 but has since starred in dramas such as 'Mr Selfridge', 'Liar' and ' Mr Bates vs The Post Office.'
She said: "I feel as though I got really lucky in many aspects of my career. Actresses who were only a couple of years further down the line did not have that experience, and I have to thank them for paving the way, because they were the ones who said: 'You know this detective in this show? Can that be a woman, please?'
"They fought to have the chance. I feel as though I was one of the first winners behind them, because I never had to have that battle.
"I started off in theatre. I love Shakespeare, but there was never a part where I thought: 'Oh my God, I'd love to play that,' because the female parts felt like such a let-down compared to the Iagos.
"But when I went to the Royal Shakespeare Company, we did a Spanish Golden Age season in 2004, when all of the leading roles were female. From there, I went to 'Coronation Street', which is a hugely female-dominant show and always has been.
"Ánd from that, I went to 'Mr Selfridge', which, despite being called 'Mr Selfridge', is actually a female-dominated show. So my track record is of being fortunate to get in that slipstream."
