Casualty star tells how Growing older on screen is difficult... I fled Tesco after shopper said I looked awful on telly
Jaye, 54, who has been in the BBC hospital drama on and off since 1993, just had to walk out.
Yes, the hurtful remark stung. But Jaye still says middle age is liberating because appearance no longer matters so much for work.
Jaye, who plays consultant Elle Gardner, told us exclusively: “Someone said to me last week in Tesco, ‘Well the lighting wasn’t very flattering, you looked awful.’
“Oh my God. It so hurt my feelings I left the shop.
“On national television I look awful, apparently.”
Jaye recalled that after the encounter she went straight home to her husband Paul Bezodis for some comfort.
Wrong
She said: “We talked about it. Where are the boundaries? Did she mean to hurt my feelings? I hope she didn’t.
“My husband helped me see that maybe her intention was kind, behind it all she was saying, ‘You haven’t looked as good as you have at other times.’
“It’s just her journey to that, she didn’t take me with her, she just got to her final destination. He’s quite nice, my husband.
“Everybody bears a cross and maybe hers was really heavy that day and it came out wrong.”
Undaunted, Jaye also offered a firm word of advice to viewers who have a problem with her.
She said: “If you ever think something like that then tell your mum, not me. I’m fine not knowing you exist. My universe is so marvellous not knowing you are in it. Off you go.”
About getting older as an actress, she said: “Turning 50 really helped with the pressure of looking good on TV.
“Because you know what? No one is going to employ me for my looks. It’s a relief.
“With the best will in the world no one is going to employ you as the femme fatale.
“Those parts don’t exist in this country for middle-aged women. They do elsewhere but not here.”
Despite her confident words, she admitted she would still go under the knife to change her appearance.
Jaye said: “When I see myself on the TV I want surgery. Oh, I’d have everything. But I don’t know a good enough surgeon.”
The actress, f r om Burnley, Lancs, has appeared in Doctors and Holby City as well as Casualty.
In her latest plot twist, viewers were rocked by the bombshell revelation that Elle Gardner’s best friend Jacob Masters, played by Charles Venn, is t he
biological father of her son Blake – actor Kai Thorne. Jaye, who has also appeared in Bugs, Coronation Street, Doctor Who and EastEnders, feels there had been a positive shift in attitudes towards older actresses. But there is still a way to go. She said: “The BBC are a leading light in changing this. “There are more women over 50 on the BBC than there are anywhere else. It’s just no one is interested in reporting that. “No one cares because we are not seen as having an effect on society. “We actually are politically active, solvent beyond belief, we have power but no one cares. We are so invisible.” Her voice joins those of Julie Walters, Emma Thompson and Amanda Redman, who have