Honor Blackman’s star quality shines as brightly as ever.
With a new film in the pipeline and no plans to retire, Honor Blackman talks to benhealth’s editor Karin Mochan about all things 007, and reveals why she’s campaigning for breast cancer awareness.
Now in her early 80s, Honor Blackman is an actress with a timeless appeal. She is known, of course, for her roles as Bond girl Pussy Galore and high-kicking judo expert Cathy Gale in The Avengers, and seems to be working as hard as ever.
She has recently finished filming Re-Uniting the Rubins, starring Timothy Spall (“the flavour of the month, the year and the decade — a marvellous actor”). It’s a comedy about a dysfunctional Jewish family, in which Honor plays Gran Rubin, though it’s hard to picture a more energetic octogenarian. Age hasn’t visibly slowed her down and she has no plans to call time on her career.
“Everybody asks me when I’m going to retire,” she laughs, with work clearly still coming her way. “I think they will have to retire me, frankly!”
So, in her opinion, are there enough roles for the older woman? “No, of course not,” she replies. “You see acres of men with great beer bellies — looking like the wrath of God — who still get lots of work, when their roles could quite easily be played by mature women. But, so far, employers don’t think like that, and yet there are more women in the British population than there are men.”
Looking back on filming Goldfinger with Sean Connery, Honor admits a certain bias towards her famous co-star. “I think Sean was perfection for the part because he was beautiful, sexy and had a very wicked sort of accent,” she explains. “And he was Mr Universe, physically. He had so much going for him.”
The name’s still Bond
Honor has enjoyed watching Daniel Craig in Quantum of Solace, too, but has her own take on 007’s modern-day incarnation. “They’ve changed the character of Bond now,” she comments.
“I don’t think Fleming would approve of it at all, as Bond was someone who could bed a lady and then kill her, and then have a cocktail and move on. But they don’t allow that sort of thing any more. It isn’t the character that Ian Fleming wrote about. It’s not Bond, is all I can say.”
Connery obviously had it, but what’s the secret of sex appeal? “I don’t know the answer to that,” she replies. “I only know that if you come across as sexy, you come across as sexy. It’s not something you can develop. You know, people say you were sexy in this, but you weren’t trying to be sexy!”
The economic squeeze is having the same effect on the acting profession as the rest of us, so Honor is particularly careful to stay in shape. “I don’t drink very much, and I don’t overeat. I think I eat reasonably sensibly,” she says. “During this recession, you have to because on Sunday, for example, I might have to get into a slinky dress. And so I pay attention to my figure because of the kind of parts that are expected of me. I can’t change the way people think of me at this stage of life, so I might as well hang in there and do it properly.”
The picture of health
With a work ethic and drive that would put many a 60-year-old to shame, Honor is also philosophical about the state of her health.
“I don’t think one can expect everything to work perfectly,” she explains, adding that the only thing troubling her is a bad knee. “With the kind of past I have — with judo on cement floors, and so on — it’s not really very surprising. But otherwise I’m fine.”
This is good news because a few years ago, just before Christmas 2003, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Happily, it was caught early enough to prevent it spreading into her lymphatic system and Honor had a lumpectomy, followed by six weeks of radiotherapy.
In what was perhaps a typical no-nonsense way, Honor was able to fit her treatment in around the work commitments she had at the time.
“I think I’m a very practical person,” she says. “It’s not easy to take time off in the middle of a film, because you ruin their schedule. I wasn’t in great pain or anything, and I had this wonderful surgeon who must have dealt with thousands of people before me, so I trusted him and whatever he said.”
She’s since had the all-clear but, just to keep an eye on things, still has a routine check-up every six months.
“One can’t help thinking it might pop up again anywhere else, because you’ve had cancer,” says Honor. “My mother and my father died of cancer, and my sister’s had breast cancer. One can’t help wondering.”
Early diagnosis is key
Honor always supported Cancer Research UK and now she hopes that talking about her personal experience of having breast cancer will help raise awareness of the disease — as the earlier it’s diagnosed, the better the chances of making a full recovery.
“I think I knew immediately that I had the symptoms and went to my doctor,” she concludes. “There is only one piece of advice that one can ever give: go to the doctor and find out if it is. If you get nervous about something, don’t sit and worry about it.”
Breast cancer: the facts
Breast cancer is now the most common cancer in the UK, but there is some good news:
• More women are surviving breast cancer than ever before
• Almost two-thirds of women with breast cancer now survive their disease beyond 20 years
• The NHS breast-screening programme saves approximately 1,400 lives every year
• In England, Wales and Scotland, women aged 50 to 70 (and 50 to 64 in Northern Ireland) are offered screening every three years. Older women can request screening through their GP
• By 2012, the NHS screening programme will be extended to include all women aged 47 to 73 in England.
To find out more, visit Join the Fight to find out about Cancer Research UK’s breast cancer awareness campaign. Or go to Cancer Help to find detailed patient information.
This article first appeared in issue 12 of benhealth, the magazine for Benenden Healthcare members.
