A biography for Maxine Peakehasn’t been written yet.
“I do, in a strange way, care deeply what people think.”
“I think all things are political... How women are portrayed - that's a big thing for me. What is this role trying to say about women? Is this woman weak or victimised, and, if so, do we get to understand why?”
“Everybody's in a situation; everybody has a story. It's about finding out why.”
“As a human, if you're in a scary situation, you pretty much forget about everything else! You just try and survive.”
“I think an actor's process should be very personal and private, and sometimes I have thought, 'Oh, please, put it away now.'”
“I went to the Old Bailey, and I met a judge, and I was petrified, but they were like, 'Oh, you're an actor, well, great.' It was a bit like we're cut from the same cloth a little bit.”
“Cooking, you can keep. I've not the slightest interest in it.”
“I left the North when I was 21 to go to drama school in London, and I stayed there 12 years.”
“I look up to the older generation of men - Arthur Scargill, Tony Benn, Jeremy Corbyn - but my main role model has been my step-granddad Jim. He's brilliant, very political, quite eccentric.”
“Sometimes the darker the work, the more fun you can have.”
“When we were doing 'Criminal Justice,' they were filming 'Clash of the Titans' nearby and we kept nicking off to their catering tent and going, 'Look what they've got!'”
“I was told, 'Your career's made by what you don't do,' and that always stuck with me. I drive my agent mad!”
“In my 20s, I was going round seeing agents who were patronising because I was fat and a girl, which was a double whammy. I knew what it was to feel out-of-the-loop.”
“I'd rather go down with an almighty bang than play it safe.”
“I take bits and pieces from everything. But I think the Method can be very isolating, and sometimes it's more about ego than playing the character truthfully.”
“When I'm not acting, I don't feel like an actor.”
“I wasn't an obvious actress in any sense of the word.”
“I have recurring dreams about losing my temper, which become quite violent. I dread to think what that says about me.”
“I joined the Communist Party when I was 18. When I was 10, there was the miners' strike, and the Cold War was going on; it was quite a potent time to get involved in politics. I got involved through my grandfather, who was a member.”
“I care about my work, but I don't care about getting it wrong. The more you do, the more you realise nobody's going to die.”