Interview ROLE MODELS
Love, actually...
"You learn to smell the flowers a lot more". As the festive season draws closer, we catch up with actress and singer Martine McCutcheon, who explains how living with illness has helped her to become more appreciative, to listen to her body, and walk to the beat of her own drum
It might still be a few weeks away, but if you’re anything like us, it just wouldn’t be Christmas without Martine McCutcheon. The actress and singer first broke onto our screens as the inimitable ‘Tiff’ on EastEnders in the late nineties, but truly cemented herself as part of our annual Christmas celebrations starring as the charming cockney housekeeper who wins posh prime minister Hugh Grant’s heart in Love Actually, which, astonishingly celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. This combination of screen roles coupled with stage success (she won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical, in 2002, for her appearance as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady) meant she seemed set for huge stardom.
But the years since haven’t always been kind. Her career has been hampered by the diagnosis, more than two decades ago, of an ‘invisible illness’ – chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) – that has at times left her hospitalised and wheelchair bound. However, McCutcheon says it has also given her a helpful ‘perspective on reality’.
‘Everywhere you look, everybody seems like they’re doing everything quicker than you, doing more than you, they’re doing it better than you, and more successfully than you. But it’s not true; it’s not a reality,’ says the actress and singer.
‘For me, juggling my CFS with being a mother, a wife and having a career, gives me perspective on reality, and on the things that really matter.’ McCutcheon was also later diagnosed with Lyme disease and fibromyalgia – another chronic condition associated with widespread pain. So it’s no exaggeration to say it’s been a rough ride. McCutcheon has previously talked about the seven years of ‘hell’ she went through as symptoms took over her life, and the depression that followed as a result.
While things have got much better in recent times, it’s still up and down for the actress. So how is she doing right now? ‘I’m really good. I’m constantly learning more about CFS,’ she says, noting that understanding of the condition has come a long way since she was first diagnosed. ‘The experts are getting more and more answers about the brain and nervous system, and I’m forever researching. So many people suffer and don’t even realise they have the condition – they don’t understand the fatigue they have, or, with fibromyalgia, the muscle pain, dizziness, hot and cold sweats, all the different symptoms that can be mistaken for other things,’ she adds. ‘So I think it’s great that the scientists are really doing their research and
