Role Call

"The Half" is theatre-speak for the 30 anxious minutes before curtain up. When it’s called backstage it’s the signal for actors to begin climbing into the character they’ll inhabit for the next few hours. Photographer Simon Annand has spent the last 25 years capturing these intimate moments of limbo, revealing a rare vulnerability in famous faces including Tilda Swinton and Anthony Hopkins. Cocooned in their dressing rooms as they smoke, apply make up, or go through their private rituals, there’s an intriguing flicker of urgency in these quiet, meditative photographs. These images are taken from Annand’s book The Half, available now from Faber & Faber.