Since graduating from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 2018, actor Anna Russell-Martin has built an impressive and acclaimed career across stage and screen.

In 2024, Screen International, in association with Screen Scotland, named Anna one of its Rising Stars. She has also earned two highly commended nominations at the Ian Charleson Awards, which recognise the most outstanding classical theatre performances in Britain by actors under 30.

The first was in 2022 for her portrayal of Rosaura in Life Is a Dream at London’s Lyceum Theatre, followed two years later by a second for her performance as Banquo in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Macbeth.

Now an RCS Alumni Ambassador for the BA Acting programme, she also gives back to the next generation, sharing insight into life beyond graduation.

We caught up with Anna to talk about recent projects, sustaining a demanding performance schedule, and the training that still shapes her work today.

You’re fresh from performing at the National Theatre – tell us about it.

I had done a workshop at the National Theatre before but Bacchae was my first show there, where I played Kera (and was the understudy for Agave).

It was an amazing experience. I was there from the start of July for seven weeks of rehearsals, then tech for a week, followed by two weeks of previews and the run from 13 September to 1 November.

It was quite a short play, but it was very physical with eight shows a week, so it was tiring but so rewarding.

I really enjoyed working on something of that scale and performing on that big stage to 1,000 people every night.

There are so many different departments at the National Theatre, and everyone is just so good at their jobs and out to make the best show they can.

Watch Anna’s day in the life at National Theatre on RCS’s Instagram

How do you keep your stamina up throughout a long and physical run?

I got massages a lot and physio! When you’re on stage in front of an audience, with the lights and music, you’re so in the moment so it doesn’t matter how tired or unwell you are, you just gotta go! And it gets easier once you’re in it.

What other projects have you been involved in recently?

I’ve just done a BBC Short Works piece called Red Sky in the Morning, written by Chris McQueer. His writing is absolutely brilliant.

I loved working on No Love Songs, which was a dream come true. I’ve always wanted to sing in a show and that was the first time I got to do it. I also got to go to Connecticut with it, and it was like the Gilmore Girls in real life, we were like wee celebrities in this tiny town.

It was such a good show and I’m so proud of the work we did on it. It’s one of my favourite things I’ve ever done.

You’re an RCS Alumni Ambassador for the BA Acting degree programme. What does the role involve?

I feel so lucky that I had such a good experience at RCS, even if it does feel like a lifetime ago.

My core friend group is the people from my year who I lived with and still hang about with now.

Being an ambassador is an honour, I feel like I have achieved something with that alone.

I come in to speak to current students about things like agents, auditions and the reality when you’re on the outside. The acting is often the easy bit!

I always say be a good listener, take direction and be mindful, and don’t make things difficult for yourself for the sake of it.

There was something Jack Lowden said recently about the graduates of RCS (watch the video here) – that you can tell who they are because they’re grounded. And that’s what it’s like.

Glasgow and Scotland have a lot to add to that. There’s not a lot of room for ego in this city.

What training lessons still influence your work?

The movement directors on the BA Acting programme, Lucien MacDougall and Benedicte Seierup, are the best in the business and I still think about the things they taught and said to us.

The body can be ignored so often in acting but say the script is funny, if you’re only concentrating on the words and intonation, doing something subtle like a wee bounce of your leg or moving your weight from one hip to the other can make all the difference. I still put that into practice, especially with comedy.

Acting should never not be playful, even in a serious scene. You can get so bogged down in the work that you can forget it can be fun. And Lucien and Benedicte are a great reminder that it is fun.

Want to follow in Anna’s footsteps and study at RCS?

Visit BA Acting to find out everything you need to know, including how to apply, fees and funding, programme structure and graduate destinations.

Anna main image © Michael Wallace