Sue Johnston, famed for playing Barbara Royle in the BBC comedy The Royle Family, has no plans to slow down at 82.
The Fackham Hall actress admitted that she does “get tired” of working at this age but insisted that she still has years in her bucket to continue her acting career.
The English actress caught up with the Sunday Mirror newspaper and said of her retirement plans, “No, don’t even mention the word, please! Do I feel my age? Oh in the mornings, yes. I do. If you could see me very early in the morning you would say ‘oh yes, you can tell she’s very nearly 83!’
She went on to explain, “But I have a zest for life, I have an energy. I get more tired now, age does that to you, but I don’t think because I’m in my 80s that I should be slowing down.
”I sometimes want to shout at people in Sainsbury’s ‘get your shoulders back, let’s go’!”
Sue, also known for portraying Sheila Grant in the Channel 4 soap opera Brookside, further added about aging, “Age is funny. You can give in to old age, you can kind of accept it and you shouldn’t. It starts with posture. As soon as you stick your shoulders back and look at the world, you feel 100 times better. Does that sound pompous?”
The New Sofa actress also noted that she will live longer as she has a family history of people living until their 90s.
“I come from a long line of well-lived people. I have an aunt who is 98, and another who is 94. Hopefully it’s a genetic thing and I’ll be around for a while! I just feel lucky I have a brain that’s still active,” Sue added.
Moreover, Sue also noted that aging has not affected her memory and she does not struggle with learning dialogues.
“I can remember I did a Play For Today for Channel 5 with Paul Copley last year,” Sue recalled, “It was just the two of us in it, talking, talking, talking. At the end of it, we both went ‘Yipeee, we’ve not got Dementia’. The lines, and remembering them like you need to as you get older, that’s always the biggest worry.”
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