Shirley Henderson has the ability to play practically any age and any type of character. With roles as varied as Bridget Jones' friend Jude to Moaning Myrtle in the "Harry Potter" movies to a moustached introvert in "Intermission," Henderson possesses a chameleon-like, age defying quality.

INTERVIEW WITH SHIRLEY HENDERSON:

Are you the older or younger sister in ?Intermission??
It's just how people see you.

I think age doesn't come into acting. I think it's how you look, and how you look on screen, how your body's changing, how your face is developing, how each casting director sees you. I mean, obviously I would never get a fourteen year old who wasn't a ghost, I wouldn't have been a real schoolgirl in ?Harry Potter.? It's ridiculous. It's only because she's a ghost, and she's quite pale, and has a strange voice, and she's old and everything, so with that, that's a different thing altogether. But it's how people see you, and who they cast you with, who is cast opposite. It's not really about how old you are.

Is it weird to revisit films (?Intermission? and ?Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself?) that were made years ago?
It is so weird. The weirdest point is analyzing films, when you don't really do that when you're acting. Well, I don't. I mean, obviously you think about the films, and you personally, in your own head, work things out when you're doing scenes, but you don't break the film down as you have to after.

So which film do you relate to better?
I relate to them both in different ways. I wanted to do them both, and they both appealed to me. They both made me laugh and made me kind of moved when I read them. I recognized Alice's, I suppose, her quietness. I liked that. [It] very much appealed to me, and it moved on from that to something else. You can't stay like that. Something wakes her up and brings her out of that. So that was very appealing.

What's your reaction to the violence in ?Intermission??
I enjoy the violence. I don't take it too serious. I find it very funny, and I've found with films like that, it's not going to make me want to go out and punch somebody or anything like that. I found it funny to me, but everybody's different.

Is England more or less sensitive to violence?
I know people that have seen it that find it overly violent. Like, ?Oh, I can't watch, I can't watch that." So in every country there are people that it's not their thing. They like other kinds of films, but I don't find it violent. It is violent, but it's not that I can't watch violence. I don't feel that it's [reality]. It's a film, I feel it's fun, it's entertaining, and it's making me laugh at the same time as "GASP!" be shocked. It's so fast, and there's so much going on that there's no time to wallow in the shock of it. Something's going to make you laugh any second, and not to take it too serious.

What was the atmosphere on the sets of these films like?
I don't think that the atmosphere was different because one's a lady director and one's a man director, it's because of the kind of projects that they are. ?Intermission? is a very electric atmosphere. It's fast, you're working at a great speed because of no money, and because that's the nature of the piece. It wouldn't do to spend weeks and weeks on one scene. You would kill it. You only need a few takes, and it doesn't need to be completely polished. It's already probably polished because of the way it was filmed. I think it would be killed to do too much on it. With Lone's film, well first of all it's a studio, which ?Intermission? was all on location. And when you're in a studio, you're in a safe environment. It's all of the people there, that are involved in it, that are privy to it. And it's set in a bookshop, and a bookshop makes a very peaceful sound. You're also working with people who work together all the time, because we'd filmed it [at a studio in Denmark] and they worked together as a team continually, so it's like working with your family. It's a love story, it's a very gentle love story, and ?Intermission? shoots really fast. People are grabbing a cup of tea and they're able to finish it and then back onto the set and then back off the set, and that's the atmosphere with ?Intermission."

Is it hard to maintain that pace?
No, it's great fun, it's absolutely brilliant fun. I mean, things can be hard, you know, there are things you're trying to achieve in a scene and you don't know how you're going to achieve it, or what does the director want out of this. You're constantly on your toes and you've only got that little bit of time to do it. You haven't got four months of rehearsals or anything. So it's hard from that point of view, but it's also the best thing in the world. You have the best fun, and it's great, great fun to be other people. Everybody's playing other people, so you're away from yourself for a while.

PAGE 2:Henderson on "Harry Potter" and "Bridget Jones"

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
"Intermission" Photo Gallery
"Intermission" Trailer, Credits and Websites