One of the most well-known and adored actresses of the past few decades, Joanna Lumley revealed when she plans to step down from the spotlight and reflect on her rise to stardom.
Dame Joanna Lumley is one of the greats of TV and film, with a career spanning decades. The actress is known as a femme-fatale as well as being a comedian and stage thespian, and even as she approaches 80 she has no plans of stopping yet.
The beloved model was born in 1946 in India back when it was under British control, but moved back to the UK as a young girl and went straight to boarding school. Shockingly, she was turned down by the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, but soon found her way into acting regardless.
Her first big role was a few lines as a Bond girl in 1969’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, but she soon found plenty of work in popular TV shows such as Coronation Street, Steptoe and Son, and Are You Being Served?, before finding her breakout role as Purdey in The New Avengers.
The iconic star spoke at the SANDS International Film Festival of St Andrews in Scotland on April 26, and said that despite having made a huge mark on the industry she’s by no means ready to hang her hat up yet.
‘I’ll be here when I’m 90 – as long as I can speak. When I was 16 and told the careers officer at my convent school that I wanted to go into acting, he told me that the only jobs open to me in film would be as a continuity or make-up girl,” she said, according to the Daily Mail.
Joanna – who recently shared what she’d ‘ban’ among teens, added: “In the past women like me would have been sidelined at 38 but now there are lead parts for people in their 50s and big parts for those in their 70s.”
The Amandaland star is a huge success, but she also spoke about the difficulties she’s had to get to this point, especially since she was just 21 when she became a single mother.
She said, “I’ve been skint because I had no money, and we lived off Marmite sandwiches for months, and I burned furniture to keep us warm,” and having a son to look after made me so strong and taught me to be resilient.
The star has just secured her next major role in the Netflix hit show Wednesday, playing the main character’s grandmother Hester Frump. Alongside gushing over all the fun wigs she gets to play as the creepy character, Joanna also described what she’s truly like behind the scenes.
The actress explained that being a model helped her be thrifty and analytical, and that doing their own hair, makeup, and nails was common in the past.
And now – unlike many celebrities and their diva antics – the longtime vegetarian only has one demand while working around the world.
She revealed that the only thing I put on my rider while traveling is that I don’t eat meat or fish if I get upset. So I simply say, “Oh, it is against my religion if I am presented with meat when I go to a place.” “
Source: Mirror
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