At 75, former Bond Girl Jane Seymour is still hoping to inspire women everywhere - with both the roles she plays on-screen and the attitude she has off it.
During a panel discussion in Tennessee on July 11, the iconic actress talked about the “privilege” of having a role that celebrates an older woman, and how she hopes this will help cement her as an inspiration for women over 50 to realise that they’ve still got plenty of life in them.
Jane said, "Having [TV series] Harry Wild at this time of my life is just huge for me, to play a woman of a certain age who’s not decided to go live under a rock and then wait for the end of their life".
She continued, "I’m hoping that I’m the poster child for women over 50 to realise that post-menopause, the kids are gone, you may or not have a partner in your life anymore or want one or get one, but life is not over.
"You may have retired, but it doesn’t mean you can’t now use your skill set and your passion for life to do something else with the skills that you have."
In Harry Wild, the Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman star plays a retired professor who becomes an amateur sleuth after she’s mugged. Full of gumption and energy, Jane acknowledges how lucky she feels to have the empowered role in her 70s.
She said that she’s glad for a show that she "can actually be the lead in" at her age, and she’s "not just some random grandmother in the background."
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Embracing her age while still wanting to be active and vital is important to her. As she explained, “I’m not trying to play younger than I am. I’m just trying to be authentically my kind of age span and tell those stories. And I’m privileged."
This idea of not trying to turn back the clock but change how others perceive women over a certain age is something she’s been vocal about in the past. Previously, speaking to People, Jane discussed how differently women are ageing now compared to the generations that came before.
She told the outlet, "I have to actually wake up in the morning and remind myself how old I am because inside of me, I would say I still feel like I'm maybe about 40 or 50"
"I don't know where all that time went, but I have the energy that I had when I was 40. I turn 75 next year and I'm very sexually active… I kind of have become, in some way, almost a poster child for there is life after 70.
"I look at my mother when she was alive and at 50, I would say she was middle-aged. I don't feel that way at all."
