Oscar-winning actor Helen Hunt is making her Royal Shakespeare Company debut in a new version of Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard in Stratford-upon-Avon, playing the aristocratic matriarch Madame Ranevskaya. She stars alongside Kenneth Branagh and Bill Pullman, a notable moment given her long admiration of the RSC's work and of Branagh in particular, whose Henry V film her acting-teacher father took her to see as a child.

Speaking to the Guardian, the 63-year-old reflected on the play's themes of class, entitlement and the "overwhelming terror we all have of change", which she feels resonate today without being a perfect fit for the current political moment. She also discussed the scarcity of substantial female roles that pushed her into writing and directing, the pressures Hollywood places on women's appearance, and changing audience behaviour, arguing that phones stop people from being fully present at live performances.