Dame Eileen, 87, calls picky older actresses ‘too vain’
DAME Eileen Atkins has criticised veteran actresses who complain about a lack of roles for women their age – calling them ‘too vain’.
The 87-year-old, whose credits include Upstairs Downstairs, Cranford, Gosford Park and The Crown, said there were ‘plenty of parts’ if you are ‘willing to make yourself look lousy’.
Dame Eileen told the The Observer’s magazine The New Review, when asked if she shared the same experience as older actresses who complain about a lack of parts, ‘Most of those actresses are too vain. They have been the beautiful young woman in something and suddenly they’re not the beautiful young woman, so they say there are no parts.’
She added: ‘But there are plenty of parts, if you’re willing to make yourself look lousy.’
Dame Eileen, who played Queen Mary in The Crown, said her role in the Netflix drama was mostly ‘lying about in bed and smoking’.