Dead and Buried star Annabel Scholey on getting married and feeling empowered at 40 (2024)

Annabel Scholey was told that if she didn’t “make it” as an actress by the time she was 30, she should forget it.

Now after turning 40 years old this year, she feels empowered, confident and like she’s reaching new heights in her career.

Starring in the new Virgin Media drama Dead and Buried, she explained that there’s been a shift in the acting industry - but there’s still more work needed.

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Annabel reached several milestones this year, from celebrating a major birthday to getting married to the love of her life and seeing her daughter start school.

Reflecting on an incredible year, she told RSVP Live: “I turned 40 in January. The last year of my 30s and this year has been incredible. I’m married to the love of my life, my daughter started school and work has been going incredibly well, so I feel very, very fortunate.”

“I came out of drama school in 2005 at 21 years old and was told that if I didn’t make it by 30 to forget it,” she said.

“That was the case back then. I definitely know that it’s shifted because my film and television career took off when I was 29 and it has been slowly growing throughout my 30s. My confidence has been growing too and I know myself a lot better than I did in my 20s and early 30s.

"I think the acting industry has opened up for women, which is brilliant, but I think it needs to go further. I’m not frightened at 40, I feel empowered, which is a really positive shift. I feel more in my skin than ever before.”

Dead and Buried star Annabel Scholey on getting married and feeling empowered at 40 (1)

Comparing her two decades in the acting industry as being on a “bucking bronco”, Annabel is grateful that success didn’t happen overnight for her.

“When I came out of drama school at 21, I wanted everything sorted,” she said. “I know now that you can never be sorted in this industry, there’s always something else - it’s quicksand.

“I feel that from the experience of it taking longer for me makes sense, in hindsight. I’m a very confident actor and I’ve had so many brilliant people to learn from. I feel like I’ve earned my stripes and my place in the industry and I’m proud of that.

“It’s been like sitting on a bucking bronco for 20 years. My sides hurt, but I haven’t fallen off.

"It’s important that women don’t feel washed up at 40. I certainly don’t feel that way. Everything is changing. Lots of women are having babies in their 40s, our health on the whole is improving, people are taking care of themselves and women are career women - and that’s accepted now and celebrated.”

Annabel is starring in the new Virgin Media show Dead and Buried alongside Colin Morgan. She portrays Cathy, a happily married schoolteacher who bumps into the man that killed her brother when she was a teenager – a man she presumed was still in prison.

But the knowledge that he is back in the same town spawns an obsession which threatens to tear two families apart and ultimately leads to murder.

The actress carried out a lot of research before filming started, so she could understand Cathy’s background and diagnosis with bipolar disorder.

She explained: “It isn’t a drama about The Troubles, but Cathy was a child that grew up around Belfast. I watched Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland. I also did research on bipolar disorder and spoke to a psychologist. I watched a very graphic documentary that’s on Amazon Prime about people who suffer from bipolar because I wanted to make sure I got the details right physically as well as mentally.”

She continued: “The script is so brilliant and I spoke with the director Laura Way, who I’ve worked with before, and we just wanted to make it as specific as possible. A lot happens in the drama, but we wanted to root it in specifics and in reality.”

Dead and Buried star Annabel Scholey on getting married and feeling empowered at 40 (2)

Annabel and Colin made the decision to rehearse separately due to the relationship between their characters.

“I met him and we decided that we wouldn’t rehearse it because the characters don’t know each other now,” she shared.

“They knew each other as 15-year-olds so we talked about our shared childhood experiences growing up and the events surrounding my brother’s death so we have the same history, but then we decided not to rehearse because the characters have an idea of who the other person is, most of the time, so we thought it would be better to keep it separate. We happened to naturally have good chemistry together, so when we do have our scenes together that was there.”

‘Dead & Buried’ airs at 9pm on Monday nights on Virgin Media One, with all episodes dropping on Virgin Media Play that night

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