"It's very painful," says Kim Cattrall, curling up on a sofa at London's Old Vic theatre after a day of rehearsals. What is? "The realisation that I'm the oldest person in the room."
There are three of us in this tiny office: the actress, 56; director Marianne Elliott, 46; and me, aged, well, somewhere in between.
"I used to be the youngest person in the f***ing room," she says. Even when Cattrall swears, she has the sexiest voice: languorously seductive, with sultry eyes that make her look as if she's waking from a catnap.
We're talking about the existential trauma of ageing which - along with cross-generational sex and death - is tackled in Sweet Bird of Youth, Tennessee Williams' 1959 play.
Elliott, the award-winning stage director of War Horse, is reviving it for the Old Vic with Cattrall in the starring role. For both women, the play has personal resonances. "I used to love getting older," Elliott says. "Not now! I'm scared of losing validity. I keep thinking, 'Why is this not being articulated?'"
Cattrall nods. She plays Alexandra del Lago, fading movie star, driven to blackmailing her gigolo-masseur for sex. "In some ways it's easier to play her because I'm not a f***ed-up, sex- and drug-addicted alcoholic who's self-hating and self-loathing. Then, dropping her voice an octave, she adds: "Although I do have my moments."