Bond girl Seymour quit acting after ‘horrifying’ Hollywood sex ordeal
Former Bond girl Jane Seymour says she quit acting for a year after being sexually harassed in Hollywood.
The actress , who starred as Solitaire with Sir roger moore in Live And Let Die, recalled her ‘ horrendous experience’ of being forcefully propositioned by a powerful producer.
Seymour, 66, visited the producer’s home in the late Seventies to review her screen test for a movie role.
‘He was really famous, the most powerful man in Hollywood at the time,’ Seymour said at a charity engagement in melbourne, Australia. ‘He said: “I’ve told everyone you’d be perfect for this role . . . now it’s your turn.” And he put his hands on my thighs. I’m British, so I crossed my legs,’ Seymour said.
‘Then I kept moving all the way down the couch. They have very long couches in Hollywood. He was very adamant he was going to have his way. I said: “No! Get me a cab immediately!” ’
Seymour said the powerbroker ‘made me swear I’d never tell anyone this had happened. He threatened me that I’d never work anywhere in the world. He had that power. I went back to england and I quit acting for a year. It was horrifying and frightening.’
Two years later, Seymour summoned the courage to attend an event at the producer’s home. He didn’t remember her, or their past encounter. He did, however, help her get cast in the 1980 movie Somewhere In Time with Christopher reeve.
‘If you’re given that sort of proposition and you’re an actress, and you’re ambitious, and you want to go there, fine,’ says Seymour.
‘But if you clearly say “no” to somebody, that’s “no”. You don’t threaten somebody’s livelihood. That’s wrong.’
The middlesex-born actress was previously married to theatre director michael Attenborough, artist Geoffrey Planer, business manager David Flynn and actor James Keach.