United Kingdom, Feb. 9 -- Dame Emma Thompson has shied away from theatre roles in recent years because she's a "morning person".

The 66-year-old actress has confessed she was "faintly traumatised" by the long hours she used to work on stage - admitting her role in Me and My Girl in London's West End in the 1980s was particularly tough - and she finds theatre difficult because she's uncomfortable working late into the evening.

She told The Times newspaper: "I'm a morning person and theatre actors are often night people. I was also faintly traumatised by doing 15 months, eight shows a week in Me And My Girl when I was in my early twenties. The workload in a musical is very particular. And back in the day no one got breaks. You would get i...