ic SurreyOnline - June 26th, 2003

Twiggy's now a heavyweight on tbe stage

Sixties icon and experienced stage actress, Twiggy Lawson, is taking the lead at the Theatre Royal Brighton in a thoughtful and provocative comedy by George Bernard Shaw. She talks to Maheesha Kottegoda about her role in Mrs Warren's Profession, the release of her new album and the clever milk advert that turned back time.

It all started with a few pictures displayed in a hair salon. The photos, of a teenage Twiggy, were taken to showcase the many different hairstyles on offer to women at the time.

But a reporter immediately noticed the 16-year-old girl's striking features and dubbed her "the face of 1966", describing her as the "cockney kid with a face to launch a thousand shapes".

Born Lesley Hornby, in north London, Twiggy became internationally known as the world's first supermodel and the iconic images of her face, coupled with her ultra-thin physique, still stand out today as symbolic of the late 1960s.

These days, Twiggy Lawson gets aggravated when asked about her modelling years. "I don't understand why people still want to know about that," says the 53-year-old, who has graced the covers of numerous magazines including Vogue and Tatler. "I spent four years as a model and I've been acting for 30 years.

"The things I am most proud of are the musicals I've done on Broadway."

The multi-million pound modelling industry is not what it once was and she admits it has escalated into big business. "It's difficult on a lot of girls," she says. "Kate Moss and Sophie Dahl are the last long-term supermodels. It seems the industry has a high turnover for models now. It's not my world anymore."

Bizarrely, it was milk that convinced Twiggy herself to revisit modelling a few years ago.

In a clever TV advert, Twiggy, apparently aged 19, promoted So Good soya milk alongside her more mature self. "I thought it was brilliant," she reveals. "We shot it in the US. It was a great technical thing. I thought they did an amazing job. The younger Twiggy was a girl who looked like me. I saw her all made up in the corner. Looking at her was like looking back into time."

It was posing for photographers that initially gave Twiggy the confidence to face television cameras and, ultimately, to perform on stage.

Her first encounter with acting was starring in Ken Russell's film The Boyfriend (1971), for which she won two Golden Globe awards; most promising newcomer and best actress in a musical. "It was like entering the secret garden," she says. "I knew if I carried on modelling it would be difficult to be accepted as an actress."

Without any formal training in acting and a number of singing lessons under her belt, Twiggy went on to bag many coveted roles including Eliza Doolittle in Yorkshire Television's production of Pygmalion, in the Tony Award-winning Gershwin musical My One and Only on Broadway and, ultimately, of course, her own TV series.

She has also recorded many albums over the years, encompassing a variety of styles including pop, rock, country and show tunes, that have earned her two silver discs.

On her brand-new album, Midnight Blue, which is due out later this year, Twiggy performs a selection of pop songs. "There are a few old favourites in there like The First Cut Is The Deepest and Will You still Love Me Tomorrow," she adds.

In preparation for her latest role as a brothel owner, Twiggy had to read lots of books on Victorian prostitution and she says costumes helped with getting into character as ex-hooker Mrs Warren.

Directed by Peter Hall, Mrs Warren's Profession, which opens at the Theatre Royal Brighton next month, tells the story of a wealthy young woman who discovers she has been elevated to a higher status by her mother's prostitution business.

When it was first written, the thought-provoking production was banned for 25 years and the cast of it's debut performance were arrested.

But when offered the part of Mrs Warren, Twiggy leapt at the chance. "If you get a call from Peter Hall offering you a great female role in a George Bernard Shaw play, you don't say no, so I jumped at it," she says. "This is one of the great female roles."