By Jane Ammeson


Q: This year is the 25th anniversary of the release of your movie “Somewhere in Time,” which also starred Christopher Reeve, and was filmed at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island in northern Michigan. Are you surprised that the movie has retained its popularity for so long?

A: It was one of those movies that came out at the same time as another very large movie did, and Universal didn’t promote it and there was an actor strike, so Chris and I were forbidden to talk about the movie to the press. We thought it had died, but almost instantly the minute it went on airplanes and it was available on video, it became a huge success.

Q: After making the movie, you and Christopher Reeve became best friends, a relationship that endured until his death last year. What was his impact on your life?

A: Thanks to him, I have made some wonderful friends who are quadriplegic. Christopher Reeve is an inspiration to everyone and to me especially. We’d have long conversations about the challenge of having to live the way he did. It actually gave him extraordinary opportunities in terms of things that he could do in the world. He would sometimes chuckle about the fact that had he not had this accident, people might have just remembered him as the guy who played Superman.

Q: Had you ever heard of Mackinac Island before making the film?

A: No. But I loved it. It has inspired a new collection in my line of home furnishings called Grand Hotel Mackinac Island. It’s an interpretation of the hotel’s style and décor, and includes linens, garden furniture, birdhouses and even little eggs that play “Somewhere in Time.”

Q: Besides your commercial ventures, you also are a believer in environmental causes and have made several documentaries. One that’s called “Running Dry” is about the world’s water crisis.

A: Recently, we showed it to Congress, and they were very impressed. We’re hoping to get a more general release soon. My husband and I also made a documentary for the American Red Cross called “Disease of the Wind” … after I worked with the Red Cross in Africa and saw the appalling circumstances over there and the need to vaccinate kids.

Q: What else are you working on?

A: I have “Wedding Crashers” coming out [this month] with Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn. I play the wife of Christopher Walken [in] a rather dysfunctional family. A New York Times writer told me I was hysterical in it. I love to do comedy and it’s something that I really haven’t been able to do much of.

Jane Seymour, who starred in the television series “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman,” is a recipient of the Order of the British Empire from Queen Elizabeth.