Maxine Peake interview: The actor on new film The Falling, being a teenage communist, and the great motherhood debate

You're at home now in Salford – what are you up to?

I'm back after three months in London. I'm having a big spring clean and my boyfriend is sorting out the garden. He's a production designer and has been away on a film. Now we're both back, we can relax for a bit, have a holiday in the south of France, then at the end of May I'm starting a new play in Manchester, so I've got to start learning lines.

Your new film, The Falling, stars British actress Maisie Williams as a teenager in a rural girls' school – what's it about?

It's a coming-of-age story in some respects, about a young girl who has quite a complicated relationship with her mother and her best friend, and is swept into a mass hysteria that takes hold of her school. It's about teen sexuality and the energy of that time of life and the emotion it creates.

Your own teenage years sound quite different – you grew up in Bolton and joined the Communist Party. Tell us more.

I joined the Communist Party when I was 18. When I was 10, there was the miners' strike, and the Cold War was going on; it was quite a potent time to get involved in politics. I got involved through my grandfather, who was a member. I moved in with him for five years when I was 15, after my parents divorced. My mum had another boyfriend and moved away with him and I didn't fancy it.

What about now – who will you be voting for next month?

I'm still a socialist, but I left the party for practical reasons; I went to London to drama school and got swept up with that new life. I'm not a fan of Labour – I believe they're the reason we're in this mess in the first place, but we need to get the Tories out. I was never a fan of Tony Blair. I was at Rada in 1997; everyone there used to call me "Red Max". I remember everyone cheering when New Labour got in. I went straight to the phone box and rang my granddad. He said: "Oh God, Maxine, it's not good." And it's getting harder.

What worries you most on a personal level?

I didn't think I'd be sat here at 40 and still have the same battles on my hands. Sometimes it feels like the feminist movement never happened. There are lots of new factions of young women getting involved, but still we have a huge battle. Lots of it is to do with my business, with women being objectified and sexualised. I'm shocked by friends who have teenagers and by what they have to deal with. There are huge battles for everyone in every walk of life right now – I'm a feminist, but I'm a socialist first. It's about equality for everybody.

You spoke last year about having unsuccessfully tried for children, and the pressure on women to be mothers...

It's not like I ever said, "I'm not having children", but when I was young, having kids was never part of my big plan. It was about my career and trying to do well. Then I met the right person and I did think about it and we discussed it and we tried, but it just didn't happen for us. I don't feel distraught about it. The flip side is women who do have children get pigeon-holed into being mothers and wives, and can't get up the ladder. Whatever you choose, it's just another way of putting women in boxes. I do get upset when people ask, "Have you got children?" I would never ask because I think you don't really know what's going on with people.

Biography

Maxine Peake was born in Bolton in 1974. The daughter of a lorry driver and part-time care worker, she won a scholarship to Rada and has starred in 'Dinner Ladies', 'Shameless' and 'The Village'. A stage, film and television actor, she lives in Salford with her partner, Pawlo Wintoniuk. Her new film, ‘The Falling’, is in cinemas now