The Ambassador Theatre Group Magazine, Summer, 2003

The Oldest Profession by Victoria Kingston
Twiggy Lawson takes the lead in George Bernard Shaw's provocative comedy.

If you ever give thought to the icons of the sixties, alongside the Stones and The Beatles, Mary Quant and David Bailey - you would surely think of Twiggy. Waif-like, she dominated the world of fashion, setting a trend which epitomised the era; everyone wanted to achieve the gamine look - be thin, crop haired and pale.
Though her face looked down from billboards absolutely everywhere, and she frequently featured on the cover of Vogue and other illustrious glossies, Twiggy's success wasn't the joyful ride for her that it seemed to us. She was only 16 when it started and had no say about her career developed. "I was very young and naive," she says. "And very shy. I wouldn't say boo to a goose. I hated what I looked like it was really peculiar, what happened to me."
That passive recipient of fame has little to do with the sophisticated woman who is now Twiggy Lawson - actress, singer and dancer. Married to actor Leigh Lawson for the past 12 years, mother of Carly now in her early twenties and step-mother to Ace, Leigh's son by Hayley Mills, she is a stable and well adjusted person, who has survived the swinging sixties with great success.
There was no scandal about Twiggy, she didn't run wild - and now in her early fifties, middle age sits well on her.
I go to meet her during rehearsals for a tour of George Bernard Shaw's great social play, Mrs Warren's Profession. She is still very slim of course, utterly down to earth, good fun and in short the sort of woman you would love to have lunch with. This is a very dark play, very much ahead of its time because the 'profession' of the title is prostitution. Mrs Warren is a highly successful Madam in a Victoria bordello. She knows the score - and she has a veneer of respectability, which she is terrified of losing because of her beloved daughter Vivie. It is ironic that the principled and intolerant Vivie has no idea that the generous allowance that has kept her in luxury all these years and allowed her to study at Cambridge, comes from her mother's trade. When the two women confront each other, there is a painful and dangerous reckoning.
You might think that this is an ambitious role of an ex-supermodel but Twiggy's CV in stage and film work is impressive. She began her film career with The Boyfriend, for which she won two coverted Golden Globe Awards, one for best actress in a musical and one for most promising newcomer. Other films have included Madame Sousatzka, Club Paradise and The Doctor And The Devils. She received wonderful reviews for her role as Eliza in Yorkshire TV's Pygmalion alongside Robert Powell and has appeared in several drama series such as Heartbeat. In theatre, she starred in Blithe Spirit and My One And Only to great acclaim. She was a huge success in If Love Were All, a play about Noel Coward and Gertrude Lawrence, which Leigh produced, adapted and directed. Even the harshest New York critics raved about her.
As a singer, she has also had success - two BBC series and several albums to her name. She has a good voice, and is delighted to be releasing a new compilation album in the next couple of months. "I love singing," she says. Does it, I ask irritate her when journalists completely ignore her success as an actress and singer and concentrate only on her very brief span as a model? "Oh it drives me mad," she laughs. "But there's nothing I can do about it. Anyway I can't complain, can I? I've decided it's silly to get upset about it. They were a wonderful four years but they were almost out of my control - it was something that happened to me and it was brilliant for what it was. I am much prouder of things I've done since, especially for my stage work because I found it harder to go out in front of 2,000 people every night!"
Now all her energies are focused on being Mrs Warren. "I am very nervous about it," she admits, "but so thrilled to be working with Peter Hall. These are very classy people to be working with. I mean, when Sir Peter Hall calls you, you don't say no. He's brilliant, very clever, but the nicest person to work with. I'm very streetwise, but I've learned so much from working with him. That's joy of the job. I'm a good pupil!"
Does she have an affinity with the play? "It's extraordinary that Shaw wrote this in the 1890's," she says. "It was banned for 25 years, because they said it was obscene. It's a wonderful play. I have a line when Mrs Warren says to her daughter, "It can't be right, Vivie, that there aren't better opportunities for women." I mean, that's amazing - here was a man writing this in 1893. It isn't just about women though - it's about class social manners, politics - it's an extraordinary piece."
Does she hope this will make the critics take her more seriously now? "I don't think it works like that," she says. "I think people take you as they want to and you can't do much to change it." But maybe, I suggest this serious intelligent role might be the one that changes the perception the press have of her. Maybe we will even see a headline that runs: Actress Twiggy Lawson plays Mrs Warren? She laughs delightedly. "Well don't hold your breath. I think I'm destined to be ex-sixties model Twiggy, but there are worse things!!"