Bisset takes on another mother role
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Actress Jacqueline Bisset is a good listener. In fact, during an interview with her you often find yourself talking almost as much as she. Bisset, who has starred in films like “The Deep,” “Casino Royale,” “Bullitt,” “Dangerous Beauty” and “Joan of Arc,” takes pride in listening to her friends.
“I do think if you just listen, really listen to somebody, a person feels reflected and they feel better about life,” she says on a warm fall day in her publicist’s office here.
“Because, God knows, zillions of us are crossing and intercrossing and exchanging trivia, and if we don’t stop and look at each other and really pay attention . . . All this talk about ‘quality time’ rather than lots of time, I have mixed feelings about that too,” she says, her brown hair falling in wisps around her face.
“I just think children need time. I don’t know about ‘quality time.’ What is quality time? I don’t know, I don’t have children. But I do know what I can give as a person, and one of my better qualities is that I’m a good listener and I’m a good friend. I know when people do it for me it’s absolutely invaluable. It doesn’t cost anything.”
Though she has never married, the British-born Bisset, 64, has often played mothers — including the ultimate mother, Mary, in TV’s “Jesus.”
At 9 p. m. Saturday she plays a regal 19th century mother who has been estranged from her daughter for years on the Hallmark Channel’s “An Old- Fashioned Thanksgiving.” Summoned by her young granddaughter under false pretenses, she shows up at her daughter’s humble home and reluctantly tries to make amends.
“I thought it was interesting the three generations of women,” she says. “I believe a lot in chemistry and when my character starts to be attracted by the daughter of her daughter, things go in angles when you touch. You can have polite relationships when you come together, but when your heart and your head connect to somebody — for whatever reason — she connects to that girl.”
Bisset was caretaker to her own mother for many years after her parents split. Her mother suffered from muscular sclerosis and intermittent bouts of dementia.
Bisset has enjoyed several long-term relationships, including ones with actor Michael Sarrazin, real estate tycoon Victor Drai and ballet dancer Alexander Godunov. Her current sweetheart is a martial arts expert of Turkish descent who grew up in Germany.
“I’m very much with being one-to-one with a man,” she says. “I was with Alexander for 12 years. The man I’ve been with for many years now is still around, almost 14 years . . . He lives between here and Europe, always been traveling a lot.”
Bisset’s first megaton hit in Hollywood was “The Deep,” when she suddenly found herself leading the wet T-shirt flotilla. Photographed provocatively under water, she felt exploited, and it took several years before Hollywood would take her seriously again.
“I got through it by gritting my teeth and saying, ‘Try to find the positive,’ ” she says, shifting in her chair.
“I felt like I’d been betrayed. I kept saying, ‘OK, you’ve wallowed in this long enough. It’s not you. Just continue being who you are. At some point you’re going to come through. Try to have a sense of humor and try and see what was positive and what wasn’t positive.’ And ultimately I was positive that I’d survived the film and got through it and got rid of some of my fears to some degree. I became stronger on some level. It taught me you have to face your fears. I learned on that film. God knows I was frightened of water and still am.”
There was a time, 10 years later, when she considered quitting. “I was turned off by the predictability of what I thought was people wanting to be in the movies, wanting to have adventures, wanting to have affairs wanting to play like children, and I saw no really dedicated behavior . . . my feeling was where are the artists? They weren’t lazy or anything. I just felt that the crux of why I wanted to be an actor wasn’t there. It just seemed silly at that time. It lasted about a year. It changed.”
The no-nonsense Bisset never signed on to the Hollywood ritual. “I’ve been doing this a long time and I can map what actors are going to say . . . You almost don’t want to hear what a wonderful time they’ve had and how nice everybody is. It’s like people slot into the experience of being successful, young success. It’s boring to hear about it. You don’t really hear any perspicacious remarks about it.”
