The true Britt
By Tony Watts - Editor - 15/03/2010
According to Wikipedia, Britt Ekland is ‘a Swedish actress long resident in the United Kingdom, best known for her roles as a Bond girl in The Man with the Golden Gun, and in the British cult horror film The Wicker Man, as well as her marriage to actor Peter Sellers and her high-profile social life’.
Mature Times editor Tony Watts talks to her – and discovers that there is a much bigger story to tell, including the reasons behind her passionate support of Alzheimer’s sufferers and their carers.
It’s a tough job interviewing celebrities on behalf of Mature Times readers, especially members of that elite sorority, former Bond girls. But, as they say, someone has to do it. After Ursula Andress, Joanna Lumley and Honor Blackman comes Britt Ekland, who played Mary Goodnight opposite Roger Moore in ‘Man with the Golden Gun’.
Sadly, however, this interview is by telephone, with Britt literally snowed into her home in Sweden. “I’ve been out with a shovel to try and get my car out of the drive, but it’s a foot and a half deep out there,” she tells me.
The reason behind our call is that Britt is heading a new campaign to raise funds for Alzheimer’s Society ‘Old Jewellery Appeal’ – an appeal for people to donate unwanted items to help raise much-needed funds for the vital work that the charity undertakes on behalf of Alzheimer’s sufferers and their carers. For Britt, this has been a long-standing and very personal commitment to an important cause.
“I’ve been involved with the Society for 14 years,” she tells me. “My mother had Alzheimer’s for 11 tortuous years. I watched as her life shut down on her from her late 50s onwards.
“Certainly then in Sweden it was not a very well understood condition. Everyone had a granny or old relation who forgot things and people would always smile at this. It was accepted as something that just happened. But I can speak for the situation in Britain now, and the charities are doing an incredible job of getting information out there and raising the profile of the
disease – as well as reducing the stigma of it. The media have been
magnificent in helping that to happen too.
“The fact that high profile figures like Ronald Regan had the disease, and now Sir Terry Pratchett, makes people realise that anyone can get the disease and at any age. I’m a huge admirer of Terry Pratchett, who has not only got the facts out there, but has just kept going as well.”
The current charity appeal, she says, is all about raising funds to help not just those suffering from the condition. “We still don’t give the appreciation due to the huge number of people who act as carers. A friend told me of how his wife succumbed to Alzheimer’s – robbing them both of those precious years together towards the end of their lives. I know what it’s like to watch someone you love, your parent or partner, reverting to childhood. They can’t bathe, dress, shower or eat unaided – and it isn’t just the physical challenge of having to cope with this.
“You can help them go out, put on their lipstick for them, they smile and things look normal. With a physical illness you don’t have to explain the situation, but like other mental conditions, there are no visible signs.”
Our conversation turns to other subjects. Britt tells me that she has been busy finalising the script for a one-woman show that is planned for this year – quite a leap from the role that she has been playing for the last few months as the Fairy Godmother in panto at Torquay.
“Is it about me? Yes, I suppose it is,” she says. “It’s my life – the
people in it, the things I have done.
“So much of my life has been played out in public that it would be no
good not being absolutely honest. But I am a very honest person
anyway. I don’t lie.”
That should make for a fascinating evening’s entertainment as she has
famously been married to or partnered some of the world’s most famous
men – including Peter Sellers, Warren Beatty and Rod Stewart. And
while she modestly downplays her own acting career - “I have never been a Shakespearean actress” - she has played some very big roles.
The highlight? “I feel very privileged to have been a Bond girl. They were great films and it’s a wonderful ‘club’ to be part of. Very politically incorrect of course and – in today’s terms – very irresponsible! My children’s generation seem so responsible. I say children, but they are all so grown up now. The oldest is 44. I manage to keep up with them on Facebook! The oldest runs a club in Los Angeles, the youngest is a drummer and the middle one designs jewellery.”
Did she never consider encouraging them to follow her into acting? “Absolutely not! It’s far too insecure a profession!”
To donate your old or unwanted jewellery visit the website below or call or call 0870 4170192.