“When you hit 30 you notice your metabolism isn’t as fast as it once was and that going for a run or two doesn’t fix a jiggly belly like it used to. But what I’d been going through was just as much mental as physical. I’m someone who’s naturally energetic, enthusiastic and optimistic. But I’d been finding life hard, especially in the past 12 months. Everything about me just hadn’t been right.

The last two years at least have been a lot slower workwise. This film and television industry, I absolutely love it, but it always reminds you how ruthless it is. You can put in the best auditions you’ve ever done and not even get a call back. Whenever I teach acting classes I tell the kids, ‘This industry is at least 95 per cent rejection. You are going to get knocked back all the time. And you have to learn not to take it personally because for any one of a million possible reasons you’re not right for the role’.

“I KEPT HOW BAD I FELT TO MYSELF, MAKING SURE I WAS ALONE BEFORE