Character Breakdown

Book excerpt: Cult heroine Zawe Ashton brings us a unique look at life, work and the absurdities of contemporary life Zawe Ashton has been acting since she was six. She has played many different roles, from 'cute little girl' to 'assassin with attitude', Oscar Wilde's Salome to St Trinian's schoolgirl to Fresh Meat's Vod. To stay sane, an actor must tread a high-wire between life and art, keep sight of where a character ends and the real person begins. So she doesn't lose herself completely. In Character Breakdown, Zawe scrolls through a version of her life. Or is it a version of her art? Or something in between. In it, she encounters glamour, horror, absurdity and questions like: is a life spent more on performance than reality any life at all?