The Independent On Sunday,
June 19th, 2005
How We Met - Janie Dee & Twiggy
"I had to get close to her, she's special"
Born in 1965, the actress Janie Dee won the first of two Olivier Awards for her role in Alan Ayckbourne's Comic Potential. She is married to the actor Rupert Wickham, has two young children and lives in West London.
In the Sixties, Lesley Hornby became an iconic model, picking up the name Twiggy, and later turned to acting. Now 55, she is married to Leigh Lawson, also an actor, has one daughter and lives in London.
JANIE DEE
I was doing Comic Potential in 2000 in New York and one night
someone came to tell me Twiggy was in the foyer to see me. I said,
"Twiggy, what the Twiggy?" I came out of the stage door
and saw this little girl with plaits and a jacket and jeans and not much
make-up. It was Twiggy.
I was so excited. I'd grown up with her as an iconic figure. I could still see her as the girl on the front of Vogue. I think I said something like, "I can't believe you're here," and she was so down-to-earth and very complimentary about my performance. She asked what it was like bringing a part that I had done in London over to New York - the usual questions actresses ask each other.
I had no idea that Twiggy had had her own huge success on Broadway in My One And Only in 1983, but by coincidence, when I got back to London, a producer suggested I do it. I agreed and did it at Chichester, had a fantastic time, and then it came up to London. By then I'd finally realised that I was playing Twiggy's part. One night, I heard that she was in the theatre and was very nervous when I went on, partly because I thought it would be difficult for her sitting in an audience and watching somebody else do something she'd made her own. After, she said it had been, that could remember all her lines, but was delighted for me.
As a result of My One And Only I was asked by Peter Hall to do Betrayal and Design For Living in Bath. When we were rehearsing, he was directing Mrs Warren's Profession, starring Twiggy. The way he talked about her professionalism made me like her even more. When I got to Bath there was a letter waiting for me from Twiggy, wishing me luck and being so supportive that I thought I've got to get closer to this woman, she's very special. I was still in awe of her. That only faded when I got to know her better, which finally came about in 2004 when our husbands were acting together in a production of Death And The Maiden. We found ourselves in the audience together, chatting away, as supportive wives do.
Since then it's become a friendship, a "come over and have dinner with us" kind of thing. We get on well because we're pretty down to earth. We come from the same sort of background: secure, loving, warm, working-class homes. We're always talking about work and children. The difficulty of juggling family and career comes up more than anything else. She understands, she's been through it. She's a guiding light for me.
TWIGGY
I'm terrible at remembering dates, but I think we met after I'd seen
Janie in Comic Potential in New York. She was absolutely brilliant.
It is still one of those performances that are etched in my mind. I went
backstage with Leigh. Having been on the other side of it, I know how nice
it is when people come round afterwards to see you in the dressing room.
When there's someone famous in the audience, it rides on the ether, and
everyone knows about it. When I was on Broadway and that person didn't
come round afterwards, I'd think I must have been terrible.
Janie was as she always is. She's got a great sense of humour and we're both very grounded. We just clicked. If someone's talented, you tend to warm towards them. It can happen that you meet them and they're a pain in the neck, but Janie isn't. It would be hard to get close to someone who was a performer but really untalented. I'd find it hard to know what to say to them.
After that first meeting our careers have been weird. There's been this connection. I'd done My One And Only on Broadway which was an extraordinary experience for me, but we never did it in England. So I'd done it, but never seen it done of stage. Then in 2001 it came on in London with Janie in my role as Edythe Herbert. It was so peculiar watching her but she has a great voice and this wonderful warmth. As soon as she came out on stage, my admiration for her grew and grew.
We didn't start hanging out then, but we did keep in touch and had a few dinners. Then last summer Leigh and Janie's husband did Death And The Maiden together, so we were thrown back together again - which was lovely.
We talk about kids, theatre things, food - we both like cooking. There's a lot of people you meet in this business and you thing, oh I couldn't hang out with them, they're pretentious. With Janie, there's nothing like that. She's just nice. Boring word, but it's true. She's much younger than me but in the work we do that doesn't really matter. It levels that out. I'm known as the kid of the Sixties but my heart is and soul are really in the 1920s and 1930s, and that is something that Janie and I share. She creates that world and that period brilliantly. She's one of a rare breed. She can sing, dance and act. You don't often get that now but it happened more in 1920s and 1930s. I love that part of her, I feel much more comfortable with those songs, those clothes.
We'd love to
work together. I'll probably get cast as her mother, but then I'm mother
age. And you can have glamorous mothers.
Picture: Brian Aris.
Interviews: Peter Stanford.
