Joanna Scanlan in tears over shock best actress Bafta win: 'I never imagined it' (2024)

Joanna Scanlan was overcome with emotion after her leading actress win on Sunday night, breaking down in tears afterwards in the Baftas winners’ press conference.

The actress, who won for her powerful performance as a grieving widow in Aleem Khan’s After Love and has previously been nominated for her work in television, called the gong ‘the highest accolade I could ever aspire to’ and admitting she ‘never imagined’ she would claim the Bafta award.

The 60-year-old told Metro.co.uk and other press that she was ‘disbelieving to be perfectly honest’ after her victory, which saw her beat out the likes of Tessa Thompson, Renate Reinsve, Emilia Jones, Alana Haim and popular choice Lady Gaga for House of Gucci.

‘I feel shaky. I feel like life has yet to catch up with me, and reality. I’m a little bit behind the beat,’ she added.

When asked what it meant to her to win a film Bafta as leading actress, Joanna, who recently starred as Ma Larkin in Darling Buds of May reboot The Larkins, was visibly moved to tears and had to pause before she was able to answer.

After a few deep breaths, she said: ‘To be honoured by Bafta in film as a leading actress is the highest accolade I could ever aspire to.

‘And it makes me think of all those wonderful actors and actresses who’ve been performing, and those I work with every day and how much I feel the honour of being an actor, genuinely, that it is something that is a very special, almost secretive, world but we all know [it] amongst ourselves.’

‘I just never imagined that I would receive this honour, genuinely.’

When asked what it was that attracted her to the part of Mary Hussain, who discovers a secret her late husband has kept from her just twenty-one miles across the English Channel in Calais, Joanna explained: ‘I think the first thing was that it’s a story I have never heard told, in one way, and in another way, it’s an ancient story of lost and found. But to see it in the coordinates of modern life, of contemporary society, met with such freshness with such an intense gaze on what our societyis and how indeed Mary, the character I play, is an overlooked person.

‘And it’s the story about not judging a book by its cover, about hidden depths, about everybody coming into their own sense of self and finding respect for themselves by going on that journey that she goes on across [the Channel].’

The Thick of It star then quipped: ‘All you need to do guys is go from Dover to Calais! It is a really incredible thing. I once hoped to swim that channel and in a strange way, I have.’

After Love was director Khan’s debut feature film, and was up for three other awards at the ceremony, including best British film, which was won by Belfast, best director, which Jane Campion took for The Power of the Dog and outstanding debut, where Jeymes Samuel won for The Harder They Fall.

Elsewhere, Lashana Lynch teased a potential return to the James Bond franchise as Nomi and CODA star Troy Kotsur scored an historic win in the best supporting actor category – and also threw his hat into the ring as the next 007, because why not?

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