Dame Diana Rigg, Actress HARDtalk

a great British actor whose body of work represents a paradox.

In the public mind Diana Rigg will forever be linked

with performances which were almost a sideshow in her long career.

I'm thinking of her role in the Avengers, and as a Bond girl.

Both attracted huge attention, but it is in the theatre that she's

won critical acclaim and a host of awards.

Now she has an iconic role in the hit series Game of Thrones.

So how's it been dealing with the fickleness

and unpredictability of an acting life?

Dame Diana Rigg, welcome to HARDtalk. Thank you. Is it your

approach to acting today similar to the way it has always been or hasn't

changed radically? It sets more less the same. I asked a friend who has

known me for 50 years - when you are working with younger people, the

waves of ambition come across to you and I asked if I was ambition and he

said, no, you were always grateful. Having done so much over such a long

period, I imagining you feel much more confident about who you are and

where you are going and what you have achieved and if that makes a

difference? Yes, of course it does. I have always loved working. I do

not live to work. I have always had a life beside my work. A balanced

life because I didn't back now, at my age you tend to, and I have

always had a pretty full personal life as well as, thank goodness, I

have been so lucky with my professional life. I get the feeling

you love what you do. When you started you had to put bread on the

table but now you do it simply because you choose to and it is fun.

Yes, but also, I simply do not understand people who decry what

they do. Actors talk about were children really at heart, we are

half formed, living out fantasies, it is very belittling to a

profession which actually goes back to 640 BC... One is that actors are

people deeply insecure and in search of an identity so that is why they

are drawn to a job where they play other people... I take exception to

that. Not great exception. I think they are Lishman based to that. --

they are full leash when they think like that. You have to have a

profound knowledge of the human condition and yourself recalls what

happens when you accept apart, you have to measure the distance between

yourself and that part and you have to feel it with truth. Saraceno and

said I look on our part to see if it is in nature and if it is on it can

played. So you have to turn that written page into nature. On that

nature, are there many paths you do not believe in them? No. LAUGHTER If

I do not believe in it, it is a bit of a challenge. I have to make it

believable. And actually, talking about belief, it is one of the most

moving things about again our profession being in the theatre that

people come to believe. They lend you their belief. They do not come

cynically. They want to believe and this is great, great gift that they

give us. You talk about the theatre and we will talk more about it but

starting in the here and now and we've back. Here and now too many

people is about the role you have found in one of the biggest TV

series of our age, that is Game of Thrones. It is full of young starlet

actors but also a wonderful part for you. How did it feel getting

involved in something that has become such a current cult? Was not

aware that I was getting involved in something so huge for top are really

had no idea. As ever, I was deeply grateful to get the part in such a

good part. I really enjoy doing it. You're part, and Lady, something of

a Herod? She is also pretty evil. I am good and evil. Let's see how good

you are. You can because you need our help. What is your name again?

You look like an angry little boy. Do not presume to tell me what you

need. Forgive me... You, shut up. Anything for you? No, good. Let the

grade women speak. It is a fantastic little clique because it gives a

real sense of your meanness. It is also down to the script writers.

Thank you to them for a good scene. I have interviewed a number of

female actors who bemoan the dearth of great parts for women as they

progress in their career. Have you experienced that? I have truly been

lucky. I really have. I think, in a sense, I have developed and become a

better actress as I have grown older. Do you think it is because

some female actors are to be key. Again, it has become something of a

cliche, Kristin Scott Thomas, for example, says I know all the stories

can be boring but it is true, it is a disaster. I think she is talking

about film and it is different. I cannot comment because my film

career is pretty much negligible. I have done the odd film but I am not

famous or film. There is one particular role which has gone down

in history because it was a Bond movie and everybody remembers that

but I do not want to go there just yet. In a sense, the way in which

Game of Thrones mirrors something you did earlier in your career, and

other cult TV series and that is the avengers. Different eras and styles

but something actually quite similar about the way both captured the

spirit of an age, would you agree? Yes, I think so. Emma Peel... I do

hate the name... That she was ahead of her time and the reason for that

was that originally, it was two fellows - Patrick Ni and another

actor whose name escapes me and he dropped out and they did not change

the script... It was written for a man and ended up being played by a

woman. Exactly. That is how it happened. You took over and you were

very young. You paid your dues in theatre, provincial the ETA, doing

Shakespeare, and you are plucked out of that and told you are going to

have this rather glamorous part in a new TV show. I was with the Royal

Shakespeare Company for five years, working my way up to play league and

I left -- leads, and I left because I sensed I had to broaden myself. I

do not just want to be a Shakespearean actress and the world

of television was there, sort of reckoning and I was incredibly lucky

to get an addition and get the part. For those on the planet who do not

remember the avengers and that sort of 60s style, less have a look at a

clip, in a very particular get up. Let's have a look. Give me the gun.

It is compelling stuff. I mean, I am not going to mess with you in the

studio. LAUGHTER. How do you feel about watching that now? If anybody

watches your name in the first images conjured up his off the suit.

Do you like that or is it frustrating? Note, again, I am very

grateful. The frustrating part was the suit, oh, God, it was

uncomfortable. It took the hours to kill it off. I am very grateful to

eat. -- killed it off. It projected me beyond years of work in the

theatre. That is frustrating in a way for somebody who loves the

editor so much that you can cut through and reach a massive audience

with only two years, as it was, in a way that years of classical theatre

could not do for you. Yes, and I went back, I think it was after the

second year, I went back to Stratford to do for the night and I

said I can put bums on seats and, in fact, I was doing the two together.

I was filming the avengers and doing 12 night. There have been different

analysis of white Emma Peel represented and a lot of it is seen

through a feminist prism. Some feminists said she was fantastic,

Revolution is, a strong, Independent woman, an equal partner with a man

but others said, how terrible that this sort of Independent woman had

to be put in high heels and a suit and men didn't have to go through...

What did they want? Hairy legs? Of course, if you are playing the lead,

in that sort of series, why not represent glamour as well as self

sufficiency? I do not see any problem with that. As a successful

actor in your 20s, 30s, would you said you have reminisced instincts?

I have always had feminist instincts were parity of... Salary is

concerned. I mean, I think an awful lot... It is still a huge issue

today. In Hollywood they write campaigns of women at us... We have

watched the tennis players fight their fight, actors as a constantly

fighting. Katharine Hepburn kicked it all off many, many years ago and

it is absolutely ridiculous the chasm between men and women. You

were discovered on the set of the avengers that male cameramen were

earning more than you. Yes, and when I complained, I was always dubbed

incredibly mercenary... your co-star. Was he paid more than

you? I didn't go there. It was my fight and I had to do it by myself.

Another thing I am interested in, looking back, the wonderful old

footage, we talk about game of Thrones and today's young acting

stars in Game of Thrones are plunged into a world of celebrity and they

become magazine fodder and everything else -- Game of Thrones.

It was a different era in the mid- late 60s when you were doing the

Avengers. I wonder if there was an element in that for you and how you

felt about the celebrity culture that may have come your way? I was

completely unprepared for it, completely. I think nowadays the

young are prepared for it because they see it all around them, they

read it in the magazines and everything. No, I was naive, very

naive. Had no idea. And the fan mail was flooding in. I didn't have a

secretary. It mounted up. I put it all in the back of my Mini and drove

around with it, feeling so guilty. Did you like it, that attention? No,

I felt guilty because first of all I didn't have the photographs to send

back, which they were all wanting. I didn't know how to set about dealing

with fanmail at all. It took me a good long time to work it all out. I

think people get help now in the sense that maybe the studios help

them or somebody helps them. I just have my mother. You have also said,

I liked this comment, you said when you are acting with the Game of

Thrones cast you sometimes look at them and you think, Darling hearts

of the young ones, darling hearts you have no idea what the rest of

your life is going to be like unless you put in a proper apprenticeship.

And if I sound like an old bag banging like this then that's what I

am. Yes, it's true. Do you fear that today's generation of successful

young actors are not really putting in the work? They are suddenly

catapulted into this world of series and it is one world but it isn't the

only world. And I think, you know... What I have always believed is that

the stage Kizhi longevity. I think film, the more film will spit you

out at a certain age of the more of television world spit you out at a

young age but theatre never does that and they really need to step on

stage and discover what their true worth is -- gives you longevity.

Through the audience. Yeah, fascinating. Talking of film, use a

film can spit you out as an actor so easily, but there are certain roles

that live long in the memory, and I think you can lay claim to one of

them with your role in one of the Bond movies, on Her Majesty's Secret

Service, which is remembered I suppose partly because it was the

only Bond role played by George Lazenby, but also because you're

female character, the love interest, was actually quite different from

most Bond girls. It was a deeper character, more human character, and

ended up with a marriage between your character and Bond himself.

Let's just see how you played the role alongside Bond. No sign of him

yet. Or someone saying thank you. Thank you, Tracey. You have got

sharp eyes and beautiful... Looks. What were you doing so nearby? An

interest in life. Sports? Just one winter sport. Just keep my mind on

your driving. LAUGHTER So, there you are, Tracey Davincenzo, I believe

your character was called, was it fun, because a lot of women who have

played "Bond Girls row -- girls" get pigeonholed? No. I can't say I did.

You did say afterwards it was difficult playing alongside George

Lazenby. George was difficult, there is no mistake about it. And as a

result he was not invited back. But nonetheless... You mean he wasn't up

to it? No, he was perfectly good, he really, really was, I think, I mean,

I haven't seen him for ages apart from that cut, but yes, I thought he

was good. But he was just so difficult off, and demanding, and

the producers thought, enough. Film folklore has it that because your

relationship was in was quite difficult, you ate garlic before the

intimate scenes. Yes, that was so silly. He accused me of that. Did he

actually accuse you of that? Yeah, he did. What happened was that I had

mistakenly had chicken liver pate for lunch and they put garlic in it.

But I didn't mean to, and I am absolutely certain that prior to the

snogging scene I had actually done everything that actors do, clean

your teeth, it chew gum and spray and all that kind of stuff. But he

thought, because he was paranoid by this time, he thought I had done it

on purpose. Which I hadn't, I wouldn't dream of doing it. Well, I

am so glad we have cleared that up. Well, I am too, because it has

lingered for 25 years. Let me talk to you about confidence and

security- insecurity in the acting profession. You have said over the

years that you look back on the roles you have played and the life

you lead as a younger actor and you wished you had been more confident.

And happier in your own skin. Yes. Actually, lack of confidence is a

form of self torture. It is ridiculous. And I forget who... It

was either Olivier or somebody said you are being selfish when you are

worried and worrying about yourself. You know, because acting is giving

out and being... Unconfident is sort of hanging yourself and a bit inward

looking. And I think I wasted time. Not having enough confidence. Is

that... Because you have a wonderful period I guess in the 1990s when you

won a host of awards for a series of theatre parts. That was just such a

wonderful time, thanks to the director, Jonathan Kent, with whom I

work one after the other, you know, people at IS, mother Courage, it was

he who put me up there and he who showed faith in me -- Mother

Courage. And I have nothing but gratitude for that period of my

life. Because it really was wonderful and I was very, very

lucky. Not many actresses get the opportunity to play these parts one

after the other. I mean, how lucky was that? Well, I don't think it is

like, is it, it is talent. But also a great thing you seem to have done

is using to have come to a clear understanding that, you know,

theatre has its ups and downs and you can get bad reviews and, in the

end, it is better to sort of shrug your shoulders or laugh at them and

get deeply wounded by them. Yeah, you've got to move on, just move on.

Have you had lousy reviews that stick in your mind? Well, the worst

one was one I did on Broadway Abella and Louise, and we did a mood scene,

Keith Michelle Anae. What, you mean full on? Full on, nothing, knickers

off. LAUGHTER. Deeply uncomfortable and absolutely

horrible and cold! And John Simon, he was small, a rather ugly

Hungarian gentleman who said, she is built like a brick mausoleum with

insufficient flying buttresses! LAUGHTER.

Mellow well, try and get over that. Not easy. How to play the mood scene

afterwards, I mean, just horrible. Well, what is beautiful is you have

found the humour in it and you have now turned it into a stage show. You

have collected all of these horrible review is not just about yourself

but many great actors is -- as well and you have the book, this title

which is one of the best ever, No Tome Unturned, and it is a thing in

itself, isn't it? Yes, the point about Bad Notices is you have to be

funny for a kickoff, and mine is, and to be able to quote is

cathartic, it sort of halves the pain to get a laugh at the end of

it. Using some actors are too about this trade or there's? Just a bit.

And about themselves as well. I mean, there is a lot of laughter in

this profession, a lot. And I think, yes, to be too serious is a grave

mistake. We are almost out of time, I don't think anyone around the

world would forgive me unless you tell me exactly happening with Game

of Thrones. Can't, they would fire me if they did -- I did. When you

film on? In a couple of months. I haven't got the script yet so I

don't know what's happening. Do you know if you will be killed off? I

don't have a clue. They have announced that they will finish it

next year. Right. So it obviously has, you know, it is ending. You

will find something else. Yeah, absolutely. Dame Diana Rigg, thank

you so much for being on HARDtalk thank you. Thank you.