Page 559 - Guildhall Coverage Book 2020-21

when I wrote it down, but what does it make you think? And how can you jump off from
it?” It was a huge, huge undertaking for her.

The conversation moves on to Covid-19.

LJ I’ve hated this year, in the main. I’ve found it to be revealing of how vital leadership
is. In both America and the UK, people have died, and people have suffered because of
the irresponsibility of those who purport to be leading. I think there is a period of
mourning that is yet to come; that will manifest itself in strange and unusual ways in
the coming months, years, all over the world. I think there’s been a real jolt to our
humanity this year. We’ve found out a lot about ourselves – some of it good, some of it
really not good.

‘Grief can’t do anything but shape the direction you go in’

PE You know on TV, when they do reviews of the year, it used to be things like, “In
January, David Beckham got sent off.” Life seemed so easy. I can’t even imagine what a
review of this year would be like. It would look like 28 Days Later! If you wrote this year
down, people wouldn’t believe you. The saddest thing is the people who are made to
bear the burden of that reality. I’m really grateful for any moments of genuine
connection with people around me, because I just felt that is something that has
increasingly been taken away from people.

Talk turns to how their careers have been informed by loss.

LJ I think losing my mum has had an effect on every single aspect of my life, and it’s
bound to have an effect on the way that I tell stories, and the type of stories I tell. But I
don’t know exactly how.