Actor Sheridan Smith has said she’s changed as a person since she stopped relying on alcohol to help her to cope with life, and instead sought guidance through professional therapy.
The Royle Family star, 44, who’s starred in acclaimed biographical dramas including Cilla as Cilla Black, Mrs Biggs as Charmian Biggs (wife of Great Train Robber Ronnie), and The C Word as cancer patient Lisa Lynch, said she previously used “acting as therapy” before reaching a turning point.
Smith suffered what she described as a public “meltdown” in 2016, following her father Colin’s terminal cancer diagnosis. She took a leave of absence from work and welcomed her son, Billy, in May 2020 with her former partner, insurance broker Jamie Horn, whom she dated between 2018 and 2021.
“Having moved up north with my little boy, suddenly coming back to London and having photographers shouting, ‘This way, this way,’ it’s overwhelming,” Smith told The Guardian.
“Obviously I used to drink and find my way through it that way – but now I’ve found therapy, got my little boy, I’m sober, doing yoga and meditation, I’m a totally different person.”
Smith said her latest role in the forthcoming ITV drama I Fought the Law, in which she plays Ann Ming – a nurse who changed the UK’s double jeopardy legislation law in order to jail her 22-year-old daughter’s murderer – really “took it out” of her.
“I was always going back and forth between drinking and sobriety. But this time I feel it’s for real,” the actor said. “I am, though, going to choose my parts very carefully. Sobriety and my son come first, so anything that might knock me off kilter I would be careful of.”
The Gavin and Stacey star said her hardest day on the I Fought the Law set came during a scene where Ann tells her grandson she has lied to him about how his mum died.
She said: “I didn’t realise Ann was watching – I don’t think I could have done it if I had known – until she walked on set and said: ‘It was like you’re in my body.’ And we were both bawling our eyes out.”
Smith noted that, although she’s wary of taking on further emotionally demanding roles, she keeps returning to biographical dramas over sitcoms due to their significance.
“Ann doesn’t get to go home to her daughter. So the least I could do was go through those nine weeks’ torture,” she said.
“It is just acting, but at the same time I find playing a real person gives me purpose. I love doing comedy and make-believe but there’s something about playing a real person’s story.”
If you or someone you know is suffering from alcohol addiction, you can confidentially call the national alcohol helpline Drinkline on 0300 123 1110 or visit the NHS website here for information about the programmes available to you.
