“I needed to go somewhere where they didn’t care, which was America.”
I did a lot.'
“I continued dancing a lot of dancing,” Seymour, 71, says of her early career.
Jane Seymour on ‘The Onedin Line’.Everett Collection
I had one line, and the choreographer asked me to understudy the leading lady."
The choreographer also urged her to audition forRichard Attenborough’s first movie, 1969’sOh!
What a Lovely War.
Jane Seymour in ‘Live and Let Die’.Everett Collection
“I auditioned along with thousands of other girls.
I’ve never seen anything like it.
It was like lines around the block in Shepherd’s Bush,” says Seymour.
Jane Seymour on ‘Battlestar Galactica’.Everett Collection
“And at the crack of dawn, I’m in there.
I get to sing a bit, dance a bit.
Next, next, next.
Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour in ‘Somewhere in Time’.Everett Collection
LikeA Chorus Line, only worse.
And I just said, ‘Sure.’
“Dickie’s agent was there at the time, and we were watching [the dailies].
Jane Semour on ‘Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman’.Studio Seven Productions/NM/Sygma via Getty Images
And Dickie’s agent said, ‘Who’s that girl, three from the left?’
And [Attenborough] said, ‘Oh yes, she’s really good.’
And he said, ‘No, she’s going to be a star.
Michael Rosenbaum and Jane Seymour on ‘Smallville’.Everett Collection
I want to represent her.’
So I joined him, and immediately I was working.
I did a film calledThe Only Waywith Martin Potter, and I never stopped.”
Jane Seymour and Owen Wilson in ‘Wedding Crashers’.Everett Collection
We didn’t have time to go overallthose projects (a manicure only lasts so long!)
but that just means we’ll have to get a pedicure on the books.
“I was given one shot at it, one episode.
Jane Seymour on ‘The Kominsky Method’.Everett Collection
That was the series that the James Bond producer saw me in.
That was not the trajectory I was looking for.
I was going to go and do Shakespeare and Ibsen and all the classics,” says Seymour.
Jane Seymour on ‘B Positive’.Cliff Lipson/CBS via Getty Images
I just rememberRoger Moorewas lovely.
He realized I was so green and didn’t know what was going on.
“I needed to go somewhere where they didn’t care, which was America.”
Jane Seymour on ‘Harry Wild’.Everett Collection
“Apparently I tested higher than their [series] regulars, but I was now dead.
And they shot all around it.
And I said, ‘Glen, I’m dead.’
I metChristopher Reeveand we just hit it off completely.
We bonded in a special way, which lasted literally to the day he died.”
As for the film’s beloved period costumes?
I think they tried to fire him because he’d overspent like double or triple or something.
Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman(1993-98))
“I was never supposed to do it.
I was penniless, homeless, with two children.
And so I called my agent and said, ‘I will do anything.'”
So he sent her the role of Dr. Quinn.
“I got the script at 10 o’clock that night.
And I had to sign for five years.”
It’s a woman in the lead.
It’s a medical show.
It’s children and animals.
It will never make it, so don’t worry about it.
So I didn’t really know, and they didn’t really tell me what I was doing.
Wedding Crashers(2005)
“I’d just finishedDr.
Quinn, and I thought, ‘This is the funniest thing I’ve ever read, but it’ssonotDr.
This is just too funny, and I know exactly what I want to do with it.’
They met every single woman in my age group.
We saw you, and you were in James Bond.’
What do they think I was doing, hiding under a rock all these years?'
They’d never heard ofDr.
They didn’t even realize until the premiere that people even really knew who I was.
It was funny.”
I’m now referred to by people your age as “the tit lady.”
People come up and they go, “Motorboat, motorboat!”
“I got a call from my agent saying, ‘He wants you to doThe Kominsky Method.’
I said, ‘What am I playing?’
And he said, ‘He’s not sure yet.
He wants to meet with you for an hour in his office.’
Chuck said, ‘You’re either going to beMichael Douglasor Alan Arkin’s love interest.’
And I thought,Well, probably Michael, right?
And I said, ‘Trust me.
With a gray wig, I’m all there.’
I got a gray wig, and I showed up on the set on the first day of filming.
And Michael, I’ve known him for years, actually introduced himself to me on the set.”
Playing Madelyn was “a wonderful time.
Alan loved working with me.
I loved working with him.
You’re doing all of them.'”
That’s how he is.
But it turned out to be great.
Again, I was supposed to just do three episodes and I ended up with the whole show.
I loved it.”
As for Bette’s plethora of wigs?
“That was my idea,” says Seymour.
Quinnback because they’re really, really hard work.
And her sidekick is a 15-year-old kid who wants to quit school, and she’s making him continue.
It’s two sides of the coin meeting.
