The one lesson I've learnt from life: Upstairs Downstairs actress Lesley-Anne Down, on why you should only trust yourself
- Lesley-Anne Down, 68, says from early on in life she learned not to trust anyone
- READ MORE: Actress Charlie Brooks, 41, on how drink exacerbates stress
Lesley-Anne Down, 68, is a U.S.-based British actress best known from TV series such as Upstairs Downstairs and North And South, and films including Hanover Street and The Pink Panther Strikes Again.
She plays Margaret Thatcher in the upcoming biopic Reagan.
Lesley-Anne lives in Georgia with her third husband, cinematographer Don FauntLeRoy, with whom she has a son, George.
Her elder son, Jack, is from her second marriage.
ONLY REALLY TRUST YOURSELF
What I’ve learned from early on in my life is not to truly trust anyone but yourself. Admittedly, it has taken me most of my life to follow that advice fully.
Lesley-Anne Down, 68, is a U.S.-based British actress best known from TV series such as Upstairs Downstairs and North And South
If you do trust others and things go wrong, you’ll blame them, and that is the worst feeling.
If you follow your own instincts and everything goes kaput, you don’t lose anything with anyone else in your life, and there’s no bitterness.
I am not as strong as I appear. I am, after all, a product of the 1950s when the world was male-dominated.
After modelling for two years, I left school at 12 to act in a film for the first time. But being in the industry at that age was dodgy to say the least.
I was never chaperoned to auditions. My father was a builder and my mother a housewife, and they knew nothing of showbusiness — they just thought it was all smiles and dancing.
There was no media coverage about directors or producers abusing or taking sexual favours from actresses. There was no advice and no protection.
It wasn’t until I was in my 20s that I could take care of myself and trust myself.
Reagan will be released in cinemas later this year
Had I not trusted myself, I wouldn’t be with Don, whom I met when we both worked on North And South and married in 1986. If you trust yourself, you will end up with the correct person.
Until the Reagan movie, I just wanted to work with Don. Now the only acting I do is being nice of a morning, and believe me I deserve an Oscar for that!
I now trust myself pretty much completely. The trick, as always, is to have the strength to follow that trust.
- Reagan will be released in cinemas later this year.
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