Fresh from winning a Bafta and narrowly missing an Oscar for her performance in hit movie Sinners, actor Wunmi Mosaku has revealed that Salford’s Albert Finney was a huge inspiration early in her career.
Long before awards recognition, Mosaku’s journey began with a simple after-school routine of watching the musical Annie every single day.
Finney’s role as Daddy Warbucks stood out and the Nigerian-born actor, who was educated in Manchester, says she was inspired in her choice of acting school by Finney’s early career.
“My favourite film growing up was Annie, and me and my sister went through all the actors in Annie and Googled them all,” Mosaku said.
It was the first time she had heard of drama school, and it transformed what had once felt like a distant dream into a tangible goal. Inspired, she decided to follow a similar route, eventually auditioning for RADA herself and gaining a place.
“We saw that Albert Finney was from Salford, which is just outside of Manchester, and that he went to RADA. I applied.
“We could only afford to apply for one drama school, so I applied for RADA, where Albert Finney went, and I thankfully got in.”
Finney, born in Salford in 1936, trained at the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), graduating in 1956 before going on to become one of Britain’s most respected actors.
He once described his role in Annie as “marvellous”, embracing a bold, direct style of performance, something that clearly resonated with audiences, including a young Mosaku watching from home.
Speaking on The Graham Norton Show, Mosaku reflected on how deeply the film shaped her, crediting it with sparking not only her love of performance but also her understanding of the industry.
Mosaku has described lining up cartons of milk and settling in to rewatch Annie, completely absorbed by its characters.
“I press play, and the tears start rolling until this day,” she said.
