Anna Friel: ‘I go to every location with a bag full of lightbulbs. Lighting really affects how one thinks’

The British actor on no-nonsense women, learning her lines in the bath and encountering a ‘nation of beautiful people’ while filming a new medical drama in Australia You’re starring in Australian medical drama The F Ward. What was the best medical fact you learned on set? Some of the operations I studied and watched in order to emulate them, I couldn’t believe that the patient was alive. Half of their body was outside of them; that should be inside! We had two surgeons on maternity leave who consulted on the show. One of them told me that it’s a very male-dominated world and it’s really hard for a female surgeon to survive. I was afraid [my character Dr Gloria Wall] would be seen as just a hard bitch – but they said, “No, she has to be and we love her.” We watched footage of all the operations, which at first made me gag. My gag reflex is quite strong and I was like, “Oh my God, I can’t” – but it’s very weird how quickly you become immune to that. Dr Gloria Wall is an admirably no-nonsense woman. Who are your favourite no-nonsense women, real or fictional? The late Maggie Smith, the extraordinary Judi Dench, and my mum and my daughter. I met Maggie and J