Seventeen years after being nominated for an Oscar for her role in Mike Leigh's award-winning Secrets & Lies, Londoner Marianne Jean-Baptiste has returned to the London stage. Here she talks about her own brand of spirituality, motherhood and why she chose to pursue her career in America

Marianne Jean-Baptiste is back. She is about to play the lead in the National's production of James Baldwin's The Amen Corner, and there is a feeling that she is, at last, in her rightful place. Jean-Baptiste made history: she was nominated for a Golden Globe for her role in Mike Leigh's Secrets & Lies (1996) and was the first black British actress to be nominated for an Oscar. Yet we have not seen her on stage here for years. Her return is a cause for celebration. I hear her generous laughter in the theatre's upstairs corridor before clapping eyes on her – and know,...