At 66, Julie Walters has amassed awards and critical acclaim for her work as a great actress and comedienne.
But there was also a time when she would throw back pints of Guinness before going on stage. No, really.
"My first professional job was with Vanload [the touring side of Liverpool's Everyman Theatre], and we did shows in pubs, really rough pubs," she told The Telegraph.
"I'd have four pints of Guinness before I went on. You didn't think about it in those days."
(Bill Nighy with Walters at the 1997 BAFTAs)
Walters also shared that she used to tour schools and pubs in a van full of actors that included Bill Nighy, Matthew Kelly and her then-boyfriend Pete Postlethwaite. What ever happened to those guys, eh?
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The feeling that they were performing in a community theatre is what Walters loved about that whole experience.
She added: "You'd go into these pubs and there would be a few surly dockers sitting there and one would go 'Who the f**k are these?' and another would go 'It's the long-haireds from the Everyman.' But they were OK, I used to sit on their laps with my mic."
And her impersonation of Goldfinger singer Shirley Bassey "was the highlight of the evening". Wow, we'd love to have been there for that.
These days, Walters can be seen performing on bigger stages or movie sets.
Last year, she acted opposite Saoirse Ronan in the award-winning film Brooklyn in which she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the BAFTAs.
You can see Walters next on the Channel 4 drama National Treasure as the wife of TV celebrity Paul Finchley (played by Robbie Coltrane) who is arrested for sex crimes that date back to 25 years ago.
National Treasure premieres on Tuesday, September 20 at 9pm on Channel 4.
