Sex kitten? I’m a pussycat now, laughs Felicity
Felicity Kendal says her sex kitten days are well and truly behind her. ‘ i’m more of a mature cat now,’ the award- winning actress purred.
i said some of the blokes in my office get a bit hot under the collar at the mere mention of her name, and the words ‘sex kitten’ have been used.
‘Well, i think i used to be, but it’s a bit alarming to be thought of as a sex kitten at my age,’ she said.
Ms Kendal, 70, who is to star with Maureen lipman in Peter Shaffer’s comedy lettice And lovage, directed by trevor Nunn at the Menier chocolate Factory, said she’s not offended by such comments — as long as they’re meant in the right way.
She recalled something she had read where a female executive described herself as a ‘feminine feminist’.
‘ Her mantra was about reclaiming the feminine . . . and i agree! it’s one of our strengths, and attractions. there’s nothing wrong with the feminine side. Sometimes, when i’m with my girlfriends and we’re having a coffee somewhere, we might see some man and we’ll say: “My God, he looks fit!” Well, that’s not an insult.
‘in the same way, a man might say: “My God, she’s attractive!”
‘i mean, it’s about the attitude behind it. But if it’s a compliment, then it’s fine. it’s a very complicated area.’
We moved on to the subject of general fitness — how, i wondered, does she keep up her energy levels?
For one happy moment, i thought she put it all down to ‘gin and red wine’. But no — it turns out what she really said was ‘ gym and red wine’. (the gin and red wine diet ‘has been known, but it doesn’t have a good result’.) When she’s not working, she heads to the gym four or five times a week.
She said she felt bittersweet about doing Shaffer’s 1987 lettice And lovage, which originally starred ‘ the two magnificent Maggies’ — Smith and tyzack. She had hoped to do the play a few years ago, when Shaffer was still alive (he died last summer), but there was a schedule clash.
‘it’s such a lovely tribute to him, and i hope we do him proud,’ said Felicity. ‘i wish he was here to tell me how to do it — but trevor will do that.’
in the show, which runs at the Menier from May 17, Kendal will play lettice Douffet, an eccentric tour guide at a stately home who likes to use what could now be termed as ‘alternative facts’. Her motto is: ‘enlarge! enliven! enlighten!’
lettice falls foul of her boss lotte Schoen (lipman), but they soon make up. ‘it’s like a buddy movie,’ said Kendal.