Q&A with Jane Seymour

Source: AARP.org

Award-winning actress Jane Seymour has showcased her talents on the Broadway stage, in motion pictures, and on TV, for which she blazed the trail for family-friendly programming with her Golden Globe-winning role as Dr. Michaela Quinn on “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.” Her film credits include “The Wedding Crashers,” the iconic James Bond film “Live and Let Die” and the cult classic “Somewhere in Time.”

Seymour overcame a serious back injury and fulfilled a lifelong dream to dance by appearing on ABC-TV’s hit series, “Dancing with the Stars.” In 2007, she devoted her design talents to launch the Jane Seymour Home Collection, which includes home textiles, lighting, fragrances, and decorative items.

Her eighth book, “Making Yourself at Home,” featured home and lifestyle tips. Her other books include the autobiographical “Remarkable Changes: Turning Life’s Challenges into Opportunities” and a series of children’s books written with her husband, the director, producer, and actor, James Keach.

In addition to acting, writing, painting, designing, and mothering six children, Seymour is a dedicated activist for women’s heart health and for charities seeking to improve children’s lives around the world.

1. An allergic reaction once nearly killed you. How did a brush with death alter your view of life?

My brush with death made me realize very quickly what was important in life. I realized that you take nothing with you other than the love you've shared with other people and the difference you made in the world. It made me realize how grateful I was to have life and to really focus on enjoying every single moment as it happened,  and to try and do the best I could to fill my life with love, with sharing, and trying to do things to help other people.

2. What has been your strangest autograph request?

I'm often asked to sign people's bodies, which I find very bizarre and I try not to do. Other than that, the usual things, hats, t-shirts.

3. Seriously, Jane. You're 58 and still look every bit the Bond Girl you played in "Live and Let Die" in 1973. What is your secret?

Thank you for the compliment.  I do my best by trying to eat healthily, make good choices. I sleep well. I don't do the plastic surgery thing. I actually use the skin-care line that I put my name to, so basically it's retinol, alpha hydroxy, and SPF 15. I also exercise when I have time, three times a week, doing a combination of pilates, isogenics, and gyrotonics with light weights.

4. What have you found about your 50s to be the most surprising? The most enjoyable? The most challenging?

I would say that having turned 50, my biggest challenge was dealing with a bad back. I had a discectomy. I had a 10-millimeter herniated disk, and literally, it floored me. I think that the great joy that has happened in my life since then is that I've discovered, through doing the exercise program I was doing during "Dancing with the Stars," I am really able to do the splits, which I could never do when I was 16. So I realized that rather than thinking of all the things I can't do, now I'm just thinking about the things I can do and just approaching them in a different way. For example, I can even play golf. Although I'm never going to be great, I can definitely enjoy it, and I've found a way to swing so that I don't hurt my back and I don't suffer from the rotation.

5. As you mentioned, you appeared on "Dancing with the Stars" last season. Do you still cut a rug with what you learned?

I just started dancing again with [Dancing with the Stars cast member] Jonathan Roberts. This is specifically for the AARP event. I'm so grateful for being given the excuse and reason to get back into dancing. My husband says he never sees me happier than when I've been to a session with Jonathan. I love dancing with him. I wish I could find more time to dance, because it's really something I love and miss.

6. Who was your first boyfriend, and what did you learn from him?

My very first boyfriend was a boy called Jimmy, and he was our next-door neighbor. We used to exchange a lot of postage stamps. He used to collect them in those days. I learned two things from him: One is that when you really love someone, you might end up giving away too many things from your best collection because of your feelings. The other is probably not good to date as young as I did. I think we were 12 or 13, and there were a lot of zits involved—and they weren’t mine.

7. What's the single most important lesson you would like to impart to your children and grandchildren?

I’d like to pass on to my children and grandchildren the same thing my mother passed on to me, which is that you can only ever do your own best. You must live with an open heart—in other words, you can let go of the past, be in the present moment, and invite the possibility of change or change of attitude or change of a way of dealing with things or meeting and enjoying new experiences and new people. That hanging on to grudges, hanging on to the past, never works, and you can't go back, you always need to press on.

8. With a weak economy and millions of layoffs, times are tough for regular Americans right now. If you suddenly lost everything and had to start your life completely over, what would you do?

With a weak economy and times being rough for Americans right now I can totally understand, because 19 years ago, I lost everything. There was an economic downturn then, but I was stuck in a terrible marriage, dreadful divorce, and had no idea that my now ex-husband had lost all our money and left us in unbelievable debt. So I remember being homeless and ready for bankruptcy and completely in fear. It's something I've never forgotten. But somehow I turned it all around. I just practiced what my mother preached. I gave back, helped other people, and in so doing, it helped me. I was open to other possibilities in my life and discovered that I could paint. Now I have a career as a painter, as a designer, as an author, and as someone who does public speaking. So I would say that if you find yourself unable to continue in a way that you thought you were going to continue for the rest of your life, find some way to reinvent yourself by finding out that maybe there's another talent you have or there's a need in society that you can fill. You'll find that by helping other people, it will definitely help you.


9. Besides obvious achievements like your family and career, what has been your biggest success?

In terms of success, I think the most important thing to me in my life is whether or not I raised good children or did my best in that capacity. I feel pretty good about the kids that I've raised. I think they're very thoughtful people, honest. They are doing their best, and they’re kind. I think they're pretty special. So I feel proud of that.  

10. What has been your biggest failure?

In terms of failure, my biggest failure, I don't really know. I never think of life that way. I don't dwell on failure. I always feel that anything that didn't work out was a lesson to be learned and a process and part of the cycle of life.