Tuppence Middleton Speaks About the Impact of her OCD on Rehearsals for THE MOTIVE AND THE CUE

Tuppence Middleton has said it's "very daunting" playing Elizabeth Taylor and that she has "woken up bolt upright in the middle of the night" since rehearsals began for her latest play, The Motive and the Cue.

In an interview with the BBC, Middleton, who has obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), says "anxiety" is to blame.

The Motive and the Cue is her first major stage role and sees her portray Elizabeth Taylor opposite Johnny Flynn as her husband Richard Burton.

Middelton said that her OCD means one of her worries is kissing her co-star.

"Johnny and I have to kiss in this [play] and one of my obsessions is being emetophobic, that's fear of vomiting and so I get preoccupied with, 'oh what if Johnny has norovirus'?"

She said that the beginning of rehearsals was particularly challenging.

"The first day when you meet everyone, and everyone shakes hands and I'm making a mental note of whose hand I've shaken and then I have to remember while I'm talking to people that I need to go and wash my hands," she explains.

Middleton developed OCD as a child and told the BBC about the hidden and "internal" impact it has on her career. As well as an intense fear of vomiting and a preoccupation with cleanliness and contamination, Middleton told One to One on BBC Sounds in 2021 that her OCD also manifests itself in obsessive mental counting and compulsive checking behaviours.

But now, she says: "You find ways of coping with it as you get older and get used to it."

The Motive and the Cue is at The National Theatre from 20 April - 15 July

Photo Credit: Mark Douet