Sigrid Thornton is right on time because Sigrid Thornton does the work. She is in Sydney – Bondi, to be precise – because she is the star of the Sydney Theatre Company’s latest production, The Lifespan of a Fact. We’ve agreed to meet at bills, near where she is staying for the duration of the play, and I am in the process of sorting out my voice recorder when Thornton greets me: “I was looking for a woman on her own,” she says. “I hope that’s you.”

The 63-year-old actor is petite and spry in the way that someone who controls her body for a living is. Paradoxically, she is one of Australia’s most recognisable actors and someone who has managed to fly under the radar. She has worked steadily since she was 13, when she told her parents she wanted to be an actress, and has avoided drama in her private life.