Diana Rigg: "Less in wage inequality, television has changed completely" | TV
There is a woman to whom the end of Game of Thrones he does not care "They killed me a long time ago," Diana Diana Rigg, an 80-year-old woman for whom the success of HBO is just one more title of a long and legendary television career, dispatches without emotion. "I had no idea what was going on when they called me to offer me the paper, and I have no idea where it followed when I left. I've never seen it, "he continues. But suddenly, jump, this time, excited. "What I'm seeing now is Fleabag [la aclamada comedia surrealista de Amazon Prime Video], I love that woman [su protagonista y credaora Phoebe Waller-Bridge] It is brilliant".
Diana Rigg, surviving legend of television born in Doncaster (England), is very grateful to Game of Thrones because only because it became a familiar face among the younger generations that did not grow up watching their first series, another revolutionary title of the British small screen back in the sixties, The Avengers, of which, admits, she did not know anything at the time either. "When they called me, I was at the Royal Shakespeare Company, I was very young, I was poor, I did not even have a TV." She accepted the role of the brilliant Emma Peel, first assistant and then companion of the superspy John Steed (Patrick Macnee) : his theater colleagues thought at that time that going to the TV "was almost prostitution." "They told me I would waste my career," he says, perhaps he missed a great Lady Macbeth. the Avengers it was a success and she, a sexual but serious character in this environment kitsch, she became a star, a pop heroine, a feminist symbol. "Nobody in that shoot imagined that Emma would become that reference for so many women," she explains.
He is at the Hotel Martínez in Cannes, where he has collected these days, at the Canneseries festival, the Icon Variety award for his entire career ... as an icon? "I'm trying to figure out what it means to be an icon. According to the dictionary, it is a symbol or image that is venerated, so, come, begin to venerate me. "
He jokes because he never felt comfortable with the grand gestures or the pompous words of the industry. She did not like being tagged as a sexual icon or style icon while playing Emma Peel. He avoided carpets and parties. "And when I went I bought my own clothes: they never gave me anything," he says. Throughout a career of sixty years, between theater, film and television, has received awards, tributes and good reviews, although the best compliment came from his favorite actress: "One night, I do not remember what work was doing in London, Katharine Hepburn appeared in my dressing room, she shook my hand and said: 'A Spencer [Tracy] You have loved it. " Not all comments have been good. After The Avengers He starred in a comedy in the US, Diana: "It was a complete disaster. Although he gave me to pay the mortgage, "he celebrates.
She has laughed so hard at the profession that she turned the "cruelest" critique of her own career - one in which they compared her naked body to "a poorly propped brick mausoleum" - into a successful book, No Turn Unstoned, for the one who asked his fellow professionals to share their worst judgments too. "Hepburn answered right away, others never did or said they did not have: lie!" He exclaims. "Only if you are a good actor and you are sure of yourself do you also know how to fit the bad comments".
Rigg is speaking reluctantly: with irony and short phrases. He does not like to look back on his life or his career, but he is bound by events and recognitions like this one that he dedicates to him in Cannes. "What is the point of nostalgia, of hindsight? It is a longing for the past and I am very happy with my present. My head works for me and my body responds enough, so I can keep working. Now, in April, I start shooting with Edgar Wright[Directorof[eldirectordeBaby]" announce
In addition, he continues to be surprised by what he sees on the small screen (and also on his iPad). Will not see Game of Thrones ("Fantasy is not going"), but constantly repeating how good it is Fleabag. "Television has changed so much, I came when it was black and white, when the series were shot live and if you made a mistake, all England saw it. That was really scary, "he recalls. "Although some things have not changed. Today they are still fighting for equal pay, as I claimed in the Avengers the day I found out I was charging less than the camera, "he says. "I complained publicly, the newspapers echoed and I did, but I was left alone, nobody supported me, not even my dear Patrick (Macnee). It was wonderful, but like so many men, he did not want to get into trouble. "
Abandonment the Avengers in 1968, at the peak, and again predicted a bad future. A year later, Rigg was not only Bond girl, but Mrs. Bond, the spy's only wife, in 007 at the service of His Majesty (1969). And, as in everything, his favorite memory of that film is very earthy. "The best thing was how much they paid me and how much was spent on the shoot, I had never seen that generosity," he jokes. "I thought that I wish it were always like that, but it was not. My great career in film was almost non-existent before Bond and it was also afterwards. "
