Veteran British actress JOANNA LUMLEY deliberately avoided breaking into Hollywood movies – because she didn’t think she was beautiful enough.
The star is famed for her acting roles on legendary British TV shows including 60s spy classic The Avengers and comedy Absolutely Fabulous.
But despite her former modelling career and a role as a Bond girl in 1969’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Lumley has never tried to break into mainstream blockbusters.
She insists she lacks the ambition to boost her career and hasn’t got the good looks to compete against other British beauties such as Kate Beckinsale and Catherine Zeta-Jones.
Lumley says, “I’ve never been interested enough to have a career trajectory. I’ve never had any ambition, or thought of what I should be doing or had any idea of what I’d like to do. Never. And still don’t.
“But if I had been a raging beauty I would have gone to America I imagine, and made a career out there. Because you can’t do that over here (in the U.K.); this country slightly despises beauty, and so all our lovely, lovely ones go and make a hit of it over there. The Catherine Zeta-Joneses and the Kate Beckinsales… I always saw myself as a character actress, which anyone in their right minds would rather be than a beauty actress. Beautiful is boring.”