Jane Seymour's Story - written by Jane Seymour
exclusively for Hello- Part Three |
It
certainly wasn't a palace. But it was in quite a good area. It was
clean and it had a little garden. The sky was blue and the sun shone.
I was young and so full of hope that nothing else mattered to me.
Sometimes I didn't even have time to eat. Staying thin in those days was
no trouble for me at all. Whenever I did eat, not a common happening, I
tried to make a feast of it. I remember one day when I made 300 grammes
of strawberries last for hours. I sat in the garden with the sunset in
the background, popping the strawberries in my mouth, one by one. I remembered
London, my family, Geep and ... English strawberries. I felt slightly nostalgic.
At the end of' my course I talked almost like an American. I'd done it!
And from that moment on I went to all the tests, castings and trials, anything
that could mean a job for me. I finally got my first role. It was in the
television serial McCloud. It was a tiny part, nothing important, but it
was my first job in America.
Whenever anyone sees me in those old films and asks with surprise: "How
could you ever accept that role?" I answer proudly: "Because
I had to learn. Because I had to demonstrate to the industrv that I could
work in the United States just like any other actress."
In those days I agreed to do anything that came my way, but always with
one condition. They had to allow me to play an American. If they accepted
this, then I took the job. This way, little by little, I stopped being
an English actress and became just another actress.
Mini-series are a relatively recent thing on American television. The first
one of this type, if I remember correctly, was Rich Man, Poor Man. The
second was Captains and Kings (1976). 1 was hired for the latter.
At first, the producers weren't too sure how it would turn out. Rich Man,
Poor Man had been a great success and they wanted Captains And Kings to
follow suit.There was much speculation about it when it was first screened
on television. People said that the series, based on Taylor Caldwell's
novel, was merely the story of the Kennedy family. And it seems that there
were great similarities between this family and the Kennedys.
In the end it was precisely these similarities that made the series a success.
But we weren't thinking of this when we started filming it. The idea at
the beginning was to make a small production. My role, for instance was
initially much shorter.We'd only been working on it a few days when the
executives of the TV network saw the scenes with Perry King and myself.
They told the producers they wanted more love scenes from us. The producers
replied that these weren't in the novel. But the executives told them that
they would give them more viewing time if they contrived to stick more
love scenes in the script. The producers did it.
And in this rather simple way, Marjorie Chisholm, the part I played in
the series, got a bigger role, and I was nominated for an Emmy award. It
would be my first nomination. It would take me a few more get it.
1 have wonderful memories of the filming of the series. I also have some
amusing anecdotes. I remember especially the scene of the funeral. I was
wearing a superb black dress with one problem, it was hard work to put
on. It took almost an hour to button it up, tie up the bows... it was terrible!
We did our morning shooting and time for lunch came along. I didn't know
what to do with the dress so as not to run the risk of spilling something
on it. But I couldn't take it off, because it would take hours to put on
again. In the end I decided to do without lunch. That way the dress was
safe and my waistline would benefit.
I sat in the shade under a tree. And there I was, minding my own business
like a good Victorian girl, when I suddenly felt something drop. I looked
up in time to see a little bird in distress. Within seconds my dress was
covered with thousands of tiny dots. At the beginning I was horrified.
But later I had to laugh.
Filming that afternoon started two hours late because of my dress.. or
should I say because of the little bird!
