Kathleen Turner...
I rejected plastic surgery... I don’t want to be Cher
When Faye Dunaway gently advised Kathleen Turner to have cosmetic work more than 20 years ago, Kathleen firmly rejected it.
Now 64, the star of hit movies such as Romancing the Stone, War of the Roses and Jewel of the Nile still bucks the trend amongst leading ladies by swerving the plastic surgeon’s knife.
She says: “Faye Dunaway once told me that if I did not start plastic surgery by the time I was 40 it would be too late. And I said, ‘Well fine, I won’t do it then’.
“I don’t want to be a Cher, where my face never changes or moves. At the moment I think I’m ageing rather well.”
Doing things her way in looks-obsessed showbusiness is testament to Kathleen’s steel.
After landing her first film role in Body Heat in 1981, she deliberately ditched the label.
“I was considered a sex symbol only for a while,” she says. “I fought my way out of it very quickly. The power of my attractiveness for years was indeed an asset. But that did not control my choices at all.”
She might not have set out to be a global sex symbol but she was. And she realised when Michael Douglas – whom she starred in three hit movies with – Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty kept calling her it wasn’t just to show her round Hollywood, but because they had a competition to bed her. None did.
Kathleen married businessman Jay Weiss in 1984 and they had a daughter, Rachel, three years later. In 2007 they divorced and she has been single ever since.
“I don’t think I want to marry again,” she says. “I wouldn’t have to any more because I won’t have any more children and I think that’s primarily the purpose of marriage – to protect a child.
I’m not dating at the moment. The only interesting men I’m running into are only interesting for a short while. Then they seem to need to be taken care of. And that’s the last thing I need. I’ve been there, done that.”
Incredibly, Kathleen managed to escape the sexual harassment that was rife in the industry.
“I think I was extraordinarily fortunate,” she says. “Because my first film role Body Heat was immediately a starring role and a success, I was never in a position that so many of these young actresses were of needing something from these powerful men.”
Was it also because of her “Don’t mess with me” persona that earned her the reputation as being difficult?
Kathleen laughs. “Well, my daughter always tells me I was very intimidating. I say, ‘No I wasn’t!’
“Was I difficult? I think that label always was, and still is, absolutely gender-related. The disrespect, objectifying, dismissal we have endured. We are not afforded equal and never have been.”
Kathleen has no stories to add to the MeToo campaign. It’s not quite her style, either. She says: “Speaking personally, although I appreciate the MeToo campaign, the associations that I give my heart to are all practical campaigns.
“What I like more is AboutTime – a campaign to create a legal fund for women who have suffered harassment in the workplace and have no resource to represent themselves.
“We’re finding the money and lawyers that will help these women who can’t help themselves.”
At the peak of Kathleen’s career in 1992, her rheumatoid arthritis made taking on big new roles too painful.
“At the time they didn’t have the medication that could arrest the development of the disease,” she says. “I had a great deal of physical damage. And I
Arthritis did a great deal of physical damage to me... I have a lot of titanium KATHLEEN ON THE AGONY OF CONDITION STALLING ACTING CAREER
My attractiveness was indeed an asset – but that did not control my role choices at all KATHLEEN ON BEING A GLOBAL SEX SYMBOL
have a lot of titanium. You wouldn’t want to go through airport security with me. All sorts of alarms go off. My pain’s mostly manageable. So it’s not really in the way, it just stops me having some fun.”
While she could no longer show off her gymnast’s athleticism, she could lend her famous husky voice to the animated character of Jessica Rabbit in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? And she had a role in the Simpsons too.
More recently she took the stage in the West End production of The Graduate opposite Matthew Rhys.
“Some of my stories have dimmed,” she says. “I’ve sometimes felt invisible but I think that’s not limited to being an actress. A lot of older women feel that. We’re not taken as seriously as many men.
“But I have found, in a way, it’s mostly exciting. I love teaching. I do master classes in universities. And I love directing. This past year doing a full-length cabaret for the first time was a whole new area to explore. “There will come a time when I may not physically be able to do eight shows a week. Fine. I will teach more. Write more books.”
Kathleen is now fronting a new BBC documentary to choose the greatest icon of the 20th century and does her utmost to convince viewers it must be an entertainer.
She points to Charlie Chaplin’s prophetic speech warning of the dangers of Germany’s leader years before Hitler was recognised as an enemy. She tells of Marilyn Monroe’s fight to be taken seriously, Billie Holiday’s battle against racism and how David Bowie’s genius helped shape our times. She says: “I had my doubts about Marilyn Monroe at first because I didn’t think she was a great actress. But I had a wonderful conversation with a professor who made a great case for her by telling me how hard she fought.”
How is Kathleen, a die-hard Democrat, coping with life in America under the presidency of Donald Trump?
“With great difficulty. I worked very hard, as many people did, to elect as many democrats and women as we could. We thought Hillary Clinton would be the next President.
“I have to watch this man who understands nothing, has no history, no sense of history, no knowledge, and absolutely no understanding of the repercussions of anything he says as he just flat-out lies. People now have
to see he is losing it, deteriorating.
“I met him in the 80s. There is a picture of me in between him and my ex-husband Jay. And I’m looking at my husband with an expression that says: “Get. Me. Out. Of. Here.” ■ Icons continues tonight at 9pm on BBC Two.