Jenny Seagrove: ‘I can’t bear my wrinkles’
Jenny Seagrove talks about her joyful new movie OfftheRails, and how she really feels about ageing…
An English rose, famous for her parts in AWoman ofSubstance and Local Hero, Jenny Seagrove’s latest role is in the film OfftheRails, as Kate, one of three friends in their 50s who embark on a European train adventure to celebrate the life of a friend who recently died of cancer – and left them train tickets, on the condition her teenage daughter joined them. The result? A journey full of laughter, tears and unexpected romance... Jenny, 64, whose partner of 27 years is theatre and film producer Bill Kenwright, talks about why her new film [which opens with a moving cameo from Dame Judi Dench and stars John Travolta’s late wife, Kelly Preston, in what would be her final role] became an especially poignant one…
Jenny, tell us about Off the Rails?
It’s about the power of female friendship and also how, often, you start off with all these aspirations and hopes, but life can knock you back a bit. It’s part of getting older, I guess. And I think it’s about re-finding yourself and the joy of the moment. So, you find the things that spark joy. Even as small as, ‘I’m going out with my girlfriends tonight and I’m going to have a real laugh.’ It doesn’t have to be an epic journey.
Are you someone who looks for the positives?
Living is based on looking for the positives, for me! I learned that very quickly as an actor – you go up for a part and don’t get it, you immediately have to say fine, means I’m available for something better. But rubbish things have happened to me, too. Some rain must fall.
How do you get through the bad bits?
I look at life as waves and troughs. It’s the same when things are good, you know that they’ll end eventually, so you never really get too involved in either, if you can help it. That way disaster lies. And you don’t learn from being happy – you learn from rubbish that happens. Then, when I’m down, I look for moments of beauty.
And where do you find them...?
I live outside of London now, but
when I was in the city, sometimes even just walking along the road, I’d find great joy in a tiny flower managing to grow through the pavement. I’ve got two dogs and I take them for walks every day, come what may. That’s my therapy time – in the woods, fields, the birds singing.
Off the Rails is rooted in female friendship. What do yours mean to you?
Female friends are everything. I still know people I went to school with, way back when I was little. And there are dear friends I don’t see much, but when you pick up, it’s like you’ve never been away. As an actor you make intense friendships easily and often lose them as easily. But sometimes you make a friendship and it lasts. I’m hoping that my costar Sally [Phillips] and I remain friends. She’s one of the funniest, brightest women I’ve ever spent time with and I adore her.
As the film explores, getting older can make you forget your ‘inner child’, can’t it…
It can. It’s about remembering as you get older that you have a right to happiness. And actually, people look outside for happiness, but it’s an internal state – looking at yourself and going, ‘I’m trying to be the very best version of me’. My dogs teach me to be a child too, that’s what they do. They are my best pals.
It’s so very sad that your other co-star, Kelly Preston, died last year…
Yes… We filmed this back in 2019. Neither I nor Sally knew that Kelly was fighting breast cancer. We just thought she was a bit ‘Hollywood’ – she flew in with all this special water and vitamins. She was so positive and funny and such a brilliant actress. It’s so gutting. It feels like this film is in honour of Kelly now.
Does losing someone before their time give you a short, sharp shock?
Life continually gives you those kind of short, sharp shocks. As women, we moan about getting old, because you know, our faces drop, and this happens and that happens, and you get to the menopause… But then you lose someone too soon and you realise, some people don’t even make old bones. How lucky am I, you know?
You’re an actress in the public eye, though – do you think about your appearance?
I’d be a liar if I said I didn’t! I cannot bear the fact that I’ve got wrinkles. But it is what it is. I’ve got my hair cut very short, as I’m in Hamlet at the theatre in Windsor with Ian McKellen – playing his mum! So yes, I have to decide now whether I want to allow it to stay grey. I live with a theatre and film producer [Bill Kenwright] and he said, ‘Are you going to stay grey, or you’re going to get a bit of blonde put back in?!’ I’m personally thinking, embrace it. Nobody’s going to cast me as a 40-year-old any more, so why try to hide it?!
Off the Rails is in selected cinemas across the UK now.