This much I know: Eileen Walsh, Actor

This job can be perpetually terrifying. I’ve had opening nights where I haven’t wanted to step out.

But the actors choose to be there and the audience chooses to support the bravery of the people stepping out on stage. I once asked a fellow actor — why am I so scared?

He gave me this advice — you can either try chanting and meditating and repeating om shanti over and over and all that stuff — or, you can repeat what actor Niall Buggy had told him, ‘leap darling, theatre will always catch you’. That became my new mantra.