The actress and presenter has been a fixture on television for more than ten years and will appear in Wednesday’s second season of the Netflix smash hit.
Dame Joanna Lumley shared a poignant reflection as she turned 79, confessing that she feels her time may be running short. The beloved actress, whose career spans over 50 years, including roles as a Bond girl in the ’60s, a ’70s spy in The New Avengers, and the unforgettable Patsy Stone in Absolutely Fabulous, is also set to appear in the eagerly awaited second season of Netflix’s hit show Wednesday.
Celebrating her 79th birthday on May 1, the esteemed star opened up about facing her own mortality during a chat with Vernon Kay on BBC Radio 2. “As you nearly the top of the hill, you suddenly think, ‘Gosh, there’s not all that much time left,'” she expressed.
“I don’t want to have squandered a second of being on this beautiful planet, but my time must be coming quite soon.” I used to panic when I was younger, but as I grew older, I’ve started to live. You determine what matters as you get older. When I was older, I was always anticipating positive things to happen.
Lumley continued to share her wisdom on ageing : “When I was 18, I longed to be 30. When I was 30, I longed to be 50. We mustn’t be led into thinking getting old is bad. Growing old is good.”
In her conversation with Vernon, Dame Joanna also touched upon her personal health battles, particularly living with prosopagnosia, a condition that impairs the ability to recognize familiar faces, even those of close friends and family. She humorously remarked that her solution is to ‘kiss everybody’ since she can’t always discern who they are.
She confessed to a peculiar condition last week, saying: “I’ve got this weird thing with faces, I’ve got face blindness. It’s called Prosopagnosia.”
She rephrased her coping strategy as, “I have to know who people are, I have to know beforehand.” I always ask, “please tell me who will be there,” so that I can match the item’s name to that. Meeting people is not about meeting many people; it’s a completely different experience. It has followed me, and I have no idea what it is. I’d give it a shot. When I first glanced at someone, I would close my eyes and consider whether I could see their face in my head. And I was unable.
Joanna has previously admitted to smoking and smoking anywhere from one to forty cigarettes per day. She humorously claimed that smoking had made her physically fit, saying, “I am unbelievably fit,” and that smoking had prevented me from ever getting sick. These extraordinary procedures are what I have.
Before going to acting school as a teenager, Joanna was turned down by the drama department and subsequently became a model in London during the Swinging Sixties. Before appearing in the 1969 James Bond movie On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, she later took on more minor acting roles.
However, she only made her big-money debut in The New Avengers when she captured the role of Purdey.
And Joanna won’t be doing any acting until she can. She recently stated to viewers that “she’ll be there” as long as she can speak at the SANDS International Film Festival.
The only roles I could play in movies would be as a continuity or makeup girl, she said when I told my school I wanted to pursue acting. Women like me would have been sidelined at the age of 38, but now there are significant roles for people in their 70s and significant roles for those in their 50s.
Source: Mirror
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