At least once a week, Hannah Murray has this one overpowering thought: \u201cThank God I don\u2019t act any more.\u201d She might be climbing her stairs, mug in hand, or at her desk opening her computer, she might be taking a casserole from the oven, or browsing the high street in the East Anglian town where she now lives. The thought will arrive along with what she describes as a sort of total bodily relief. She tries to hold on to this \u201cI\u2019m not an actor any more\u201d feeling because it\u2019s accompanied, she says, by \u201ca real surge of joy\u201d.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not just because she doesn\u2019t have to strip for the camera any more, although there was plenty of that,\u00a0starting with Cassie, whom she played aged 17 in\u00a0the E4 hit show Skins, mostly in underwear. And\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0not because she doesn\u2019t have to cope with the relentless focus on her weight, though there was plenty\u00a0of that too, accompanied by questions from\u00a0journalists: was she anorexic in real life? Were her parents worried about her weight? It\u2019s not because she\u2019s\u00a0not recognised everywhere, as she was after playing Gilly in Game of \u00a0Thrones, with grown men having tantrums if she didn\u2019t autograph their whatever\u00a0or pose\u00a0for a selfie. Nor\u00a0is it having to negotiate which body\u00a0parts\u00a0she will\u00a0contractually agree to show.\u00a0Or\u00a0contending with the highs of landing a great part\u00a0followed by the lows\u00a0of\u00a0wrapping the shoot only\u00a0to \u00a0be thrown back on\u00a0to\u00a0the audition\u00a0carousel and told: \u201cPlease go in\u00a0looking nice. They need to\u00a0believe Benedict\u00a0Cumberbatch could actually be attracted to you.\u201d<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/2212cd447e0f4201cbe39a9e95d2333bc521cef4\/0_1434_4980_3985\/master\/4980.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=950e9952a13fc232073217327b90f392\" "\\"\u2018I")
<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"