“I didn't get into drama school after university. Looking back, I think...” — Lolly Adefope Quote

I didn't get into drama school after university. Looking back, I think I was really bad.

I wanted to do comedy, but I didn't grow up wanting to be a standup.

A sad truth I've learned is that I watch a lot less live comedy than I did before it became my job.

It wasn't until a few years ago, when I was going through old Facebook pictures with a friend, and happened upon a photo of a monkey at a zoo that had been tagged as me by an old housemate, that I realized I'd normalized so much racism.

I'm starting to play lots more naturalistic, realistic people than when I first started. Maybe because I was doing character comedy shows, and I was doing slightly weird, oddball characters with weird accents, those were the characters that I got cast to play - which made perfect sense.

I played old men back in drama school. It's just now that I'm drawing level with the age of the characters I play, but I'm fine with that, and I've certainly never envied people who became hugely famous when they were young.

The wonderful thing about drama school is that it stretches you in a way the industry doesn't.

That's the great thing about university: you've got people around you who are taking a risk and trying things out themselves. It gives you the confidence to try and take it to the next step, which was drama school.

I joined the Royal Shakespeare Co. with no experience whatsoever - I'd never been to a drama school or anything. But I was strong and could lift things, I could move scenery about.