LUCKY ESCAPE
between the two countries. But she has kept her British accent and sense of humour.
She has also resisted the Hollywood trend of opting for drastic plastic surgery. Jane says: “I have never wanted to buy a new face.
“I tried Botox and decided it wasn’t for me because, as an actress, I need my face to move freely. I don’t have a symmetrical face. I lost a job because FIRST Michael Attenborough, 1973 I have two different coloured eyes. I have a crooked smile, which some people have tried to sort out.
“One cheekbone is higher than the other. But when you paint people, you learn that character comes from nature’s way of making things not perfect. So for me, I just felt I didn’t want to mess with it.
“But that means I look in the mirror and go, ‘Urgh’. I see a lot of laugh lines Geoffrey Planer in 1977 there. But you know, I have my life on my face and I play my age.”
And Jane is refreshingly honest about the surgery she has had. “In [2005 film] Wedding Crashers, when we saw Owen Wilson’s hands on my boobs, I was honest enough to say ‘yes, I had mine done some time ago’.
“And I’ve also been very honest in saying I had bags under my eyes, and a lot of photographers said there was THIRD David Flynn in 1985 something I could do about that. So about 28 or 30 years ago an attempt was made there. But that’s it.”
Recently, she had to make herself look older when filming comedy series The Kominsky Method, with Michael Douglas, 74. She says: “I’ve known Michael for years. The character I’m playing wears a grey wig and the real issue was making sure I looked old enough which, sadly, I do when I put on a grey wig.
“On the first day I was in a scene with Michael, he comes into the rehearsal room, shakes hands with me and says, ‘Hello, my name’s Michael’. And I say, ‘Michael, it’s Jane’. He said, ‘Oh my God’. That’s when I knew I had the character down.” FOURTH James Keach, 2003 Despite her legendary status in Hollywood and A-list pals, Jane says her life is decidedly un-starry.
She says: “I only get all dressed up when it’s part of my job.
“Mostly, you’ll find me in leggings and digging the garden. My life’s normal but very happy.”
Jane’s family are a large part of that happiness. She says of her partner, British film director David Green, 70: “We have known each other for almost 40 years, but it feels like now’s the right time to be together.”
“I have six grandchildren and I adore them. I used to curse when people said being a grandparent is the best thing in the world – but now I can absolutely say, ‘Yes it is.’”
■ Celebrity Painting Challenge starts on BBC1 at 8pm on Thursday. JANE SEYMOUR ON HOW PAINTING HELPS HER COPE
Art was my therapy. It took me out of my feelings of fear & pain