Actress Dame Joan Collins has said her villainous Dynasty character “haunted’ her “for so long”.
The actress, 92, is best known for starring in the 80s’ US soap opera as antagonist Alexis Carrington – a role she claimed tainted the public’s perception of her throughout her career.
She will soon star in the biopic My Duchess, portraying the woman for whom Edward VIII gave up his throne to marry, causing a constitutional crisis, American socialite Wallis Simpson.
Speaking to British Vogue, Dame Joan said: “If I’d ever met Wallis, I could have commiserated with her about how the press treated me while I was playing Alexis.
“I mean when Aaron Spelling (Dynasty producer) said ‘Joan is Alexis’, that haunted me for so long.
“I said ‘Aaron, why did you say that? You know that’s not true’, and he said, ‘Honey, it gets headlines’.
“(In the 90s), I did (a BBC adaptation) of Noel Coward’s Tonight at 8.30, where I played eight different roles, ranging from the elderly hag to the socialite to the abused housewife – but it doesn’t matter what you do. They have this image of you.”
After marrying in June 1937, Edward and Wallis, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, lived the rest of their lives in exile in France. Edward died in May 1972.
The duchess died in Paris in 1986 at the age of 89.
Directed by Bafta-winning Four Weddings And A Funeral filmmaker Mike Newell, and written by screenwriter and novelist Louise Fennell, the film follows the final years of the American socialite’s life and stars Conclave actress Isabella Rossellini, who portrays French lawyer and confidante, Suzanne Blum.
Speaking about the idea for the upcoming film Dame Joan said: “It was 10, 20, 30 years ago, when everybody said, ‘Oh, there are no roles for women over a certain age. You have to find your own subject’. So I thought ‘Well, surely this is a good subject’.
“I’m always fascinated by women who everybody says are nasty people. And when you strip it all off, you find out that they’re not really.”
Dame Joan described her character as “a wreck” who becomes “more and more hideous” for half of the film – something the notoriously glamorous actress did not find difficult embodying.
She said: “Fame and glamour are ephemeral… I never chased that.
“I always chased being a good actress, and work, because I was the breadwinner for most of my life. I still am.”
