Joanna Lumley is one of the most iconic and loved actresses of the past few decades, and revealed when she plans to step back from the spotlight while looking back on her journey 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.”
While the Amandaland star is a huge success, she also spoke about the struggles she’s been through to get to this point – particularly after becoming a single mum aged just 21.
“I’ve been skint – I had no money, and we lived off Marmite sandwiches for months, and I burnt furniture to keep us warm,” she said, adding: “But having a son to look after gave me such motivation to work, and it wasn’t so bad – it made me tough, and I learnt resilience.”
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 star explained that starting out as a model taught her to be thrifty and think on her feet, describing how back in the day models were often expected to do their own hair, makeup and nails.
And now – unlike many celebrities and their diva antics – the longtime vegetarian only has one demand while working around the world.
“The only thing I put on my rider when travelling is that I don’t eat meat or fish in case I get an upset tummy,” she revealed. “So if I am presented with meat when I visit somewhere I just say, ‘Oh it is against my religion.’”
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