Zoe Wanamaker thinks Zoom is "s**t".
The ‘My Family’ actress hasn’t embraced digital communication with her friends and family while isolating at home with her husband Gawn Grainger amid the coronavirus pandemic because using services like the video conferencing app are too much of a "palaver".
Speaking to The Observer newspaper, she said: "I hate communicating virtually. That Zoom thing is s**t. Honestly. The palaver.
"I have dyslexia. I’m slightly dyspraxic…"
And the 71-year-old star wouldn’t want to do any work via video call as she felt awkward enough when one of her theatre performances was filmed.
She added: "Trying to do a play on Zoom does not mean anything to me. It’s anathema. I did an NT Live of ‘The Cherry Orchard’ and it was awful.
"You don’t know who to play to – the audience or the camera. When theatre is filmed, it becomes intangible, you can’t feel it, you can’t smell it, you can’t breathe it – it does not have the same effect on your body."
Zoe feels "grateful" to have been able to spend more time with nature during the pandemic, and is thankful it has brought her local community closer together.
She said: "At the start, the trees didn’t have any leaves on them, and to watch the seasons gently explode has been heaven. And there is a WhatsApp for the hamlet and people go shopping for you… so there is a togetherness…
"Every day we say this. We feel so grateful. I’ve had two hip replacements, but have been busy with the garden watching things grow."