Brenda Blethyn used to recommend other actors for roles she was auditioning for
Vera star Brenda Blethyn has insisted there are "other people who could have played the parts I've done, equally well".
Brenda Blethyn thinks other actors could have played her memorable parts "equally as well".
The 80-year-old star, best known for her roles in the likes of Vera and A Woman of Substance, has insisted her career has come down to "luck" rather than her talents as an actress.
She told Woman's Weekly magazine: "I'm glad I didn't retire because I like what I do and that's the reason I want to carry on.
"I really hope there are more parts for me - although I don't have a burning ambition to play any particular role.
"Unlike the character I play in A Woman of Substance, tycoon Emma Harte, I have no ambition and I've certainly never had any sort of grand, professional plan.
"I'm just lucky enough to have been offered work doing something that I love.
"And it is luck, by the way - I think there are probably other people who could have played the parts I've done, equally as well."
Brenda, who spent 14 years as Vera Stanhope in Channel 4 detective drama Vera, admitted she has "definitely suffered a bit from imposter syndrome", and has "never thought I'm the greatest actor".
However, she said: "I like to think I am nice to work with, that I don't have bad breath, that I'm not a kleptomaniac, that I don't turn up like late and that I do, for the most part, know my lines."
Although she is more confident in herself now, in the past she has returned from auditions have actually recommended a different actor for a part, which annoyed her husband Michael Mayhew.
She recalled: "That really got on his nerves. 'Why do you always put yourself second, Brenda?' he'd say.
"'Why do you talk about who else would be good for the part, rather than you? Don't do that, just don't do that.'
"But I genuinely thought there were people better suited to particular roles than me and I don't think it's damaged my career.
"If I was thinking about a particular other person for a role, the chances are the producers were too."
Brenda previously opened up about the joys of playing a different character after so long as DCI Vera Stanhope.
She told TV Times: “A Woman of Substance was my second job after leaving Vera. I hadn’t even unpacked my bag when I was asked to do Dragonfly (the 2025 drama about a lonely pensioner])with Andrea Riseborough, and then I was offered this – so all my plans for relaxing at home went out the window!”
Brenda added: “I was pleased to take on a story of this magnitude, though, because I hadn’t done anything like it before. And coming off Vera, it was good dressing up in nice togs!”
