5 minutes with: Lydia Leonard – 'I wasn't dying to do another play, but then I read Little Eyolf'

I always said I wanted to be an actor as a child, then I had a really brilliant drama teacher who took it really seriously at school, so I started seeing it as a viable option. There's probably an element of rebellion in it as well, which is a bit hard to admit to now, when I was about 17 I started saying 'I'm not going to University, I'm going to drama school!' But I had very supportive parents so it didn't quite have the effect that I was looking for.

Working on Wolf Hall was wonderful, the whole job was magical from start to finish. It was a big cast, about 25 of us, so it was a ready-made family in New York. The Tony nomination was really fun and took some time to sink in, it felt very surreal. Even though it ended up being a really long job I never got bored of it or resented it because it was a part I enjoyed playing and being in three different locations kept it fresh.

The theatregoing audience on Broadway is well acquainted with the Tudor period, so it didn't feel like a brand new story there as much as you'd think it would. They were a fantastic audience and we made very few changes. The characters are so good and Hilary's books are popular there too, so it was very well received.

Having done Wolf Hall for nearly two years I wasn't dying to do another play, but then I read this and I absolutely loved the character, she's extraordinary and very modern – the whole play is really fascinating. So a combination of that, Richard Eyre and the Almeida – a theatre I've always wanted to work at – made it very appealing.

My character is very bright but a woman of her times. Even though it was written over 100 years ago, she's very modern in demanding a full sexual relationship with her husband, which she is not getting and so she is rampantly sexually frustrated.

We obviously know Ibsen writes brilliant women, but it's a fascinating look at a marriage that is breaking down in the most tragic circumstances.

Rehearsals have been really intense. It's nice having a small cast, just five actors and a child, and we're doing it straight through with no interval, I don't think anyone could do this for much longer than that because it's really quite full on, it smacks you round the face. Richard is amazing, it's so nice working with someone who is obviously so brilliant and so established, you just feel like you could not be in safer hands.

It's a forensic examination of a marriage exploding under the most tragic of circumstances. It's searingly honest about how horribly people can treat each other in a relationship. I was drawn to it because of the absolute depths of tragic human emotions that it excavates and as an actor that's really exciting, I hope it will be as exciting to people watching it.

I've got a comedy series coming up on BBC2, which will be nice light relief compared to this. It's nice to balance something that is intensely tragic with some comedy.

Little Eyolf runs at the Almeida Theatre until 9 January 2016.