Born in Hong Kong in 1982, actor Romola Garai grew up in Singapore and Wiltshire. She has starred in films including Atonement and Suffragette, and TV series The Hour and The Miniaturist. Her directorial debut, the horror film Amulet, was released in 2020. Last year Garai portrayed Annie Ernaux in Eline Arbo’s adaptation of The Years at the Almeida theatre, later transferring to the Harold Pinter theatre, for which she won best actress in a supporting role at the 2025 Olivier awards. Now she stars alongside Ivanno Jeremiah and Jamelia in new BBC Three comedy drama, Just Act Normal, available on iPlayer.
1. Short stories
She’s Always Hungry by Eliza Clark
I’m not usually a fan of the short story – I often find them not very fulfilling. But I really like Eliza Clark as a writer, so I was excited to read these. The stories are great and very funny: there’s such weird and dark humour in them. There’s one story particularly, called The King, which is about an alien living in the body of an ad executive. And at the end of the world they form a new civilisation. It’s a really witty pastiche on gender relations, and quite horrific, but extremely enjoyable.
2. Dance
I saw this about a month ago. I’m a huge fan of Pina Bausch and I always try to go when her company, Tanztheater Wuppertal, is performing. I’d not seen this piece before, and the dancing in it was unbelievably daring. There’s a whole section at the end where the stage is full of water and the dancers have to run backwards and forwards through it. Quite a few of the dancers fell over – it’s amazing to see people who are so committed to what they’re doing that they’re putting themselves in physical danger to achieve it.
3. Song
Say It Like You Mean It by Sleater-Kinney
This song does something weird to me. I quite often play it when I’m running, and then I start running really fast, like I’m chasing a mugger. It makes me feel intensely euphoric. It’s a really sad song – Carrie Brownstein lost her mum in a car accident in 2022, so it’s about grief and saying goodbye – but very beautiful. I’ve loved Sleater-Kinney for many years. All the music I like is sad – I don’t like any upbeat music. But this song is incredibly purifying in its expression of grief.
4. TV
The glut of television makes it hard to find things I really want to watch, but this show has struck me profoundly. It’s about a group of women who go through an unbelievably extreme experience early on together, and it looks at the way they recover from trauma. They try to rationalise it, react against it, commodify the experience. It’s truthful and brilliant. There’s a scene in which one of the younger actresses, Sophie Nélisse, gives birth in the wilderness – it’s a feat of acting. I don’t understand why they haven’t all won the top acting awards.
5. Podcast
The Rest Is History – The French Revolution
I’m a big history geek so I love this podcast. It’s like you’re sitting around a campfire. They’re very good at bringing history to life in a vivid way. The one they recently did about the French Revolution was just incredible, particularly the ones on Marie Antoinette and what happened to her. They talk about revolution, and what happens to ideas when they’re co-opted by the worst kinds of people, and excesses of ideology. When an ideology takes over, it’s never really about the idea – the idea is to end up in charge.
6. Place
Abney Park Cemetery, Stoke Newington, London
Abney Park Cemetery is a mysterious and beautiful place that’s been allowed to go somewhat wild. We have lots of lovely parks in London, but not that many wild places. You can walk around and hear woodpeckers and it feels very much like it’s part of nature. Because it’s full of trees, you see the passing of the seasons amazingly. And you can read the headstones – your brain is constantly whirring, thinking about all the titbits you get. There’s one that I love where it says: “Died in an accident.” And always, I’m like: “What accident?”
7. Hotel
We stayed in this hotel on the shores of Lake Annecy in a town called Talloires. It’s been there since the turn of the last century. In the morning, when you have breakfast, you sit on a terrace which looks up at the Alps. Then you can walk 50 feet and just get into the lake and swim. The lake is like Evian water – it’s the most unbelievably beautiful water to swim in. They have kayaks and pedalos. It’s one of the nicest places I’ve ever been.
