Jane Seymour on acting, art, Playboy piece before Sarasota visit

Reprinted from Herald Tribune

Emmy-winning actress to make appearances at her Chasen Galleries exhibition

After attending the Sarasota Film Festival three years ago, Jane Seymour will return to the area, this time with a different art form.

The Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning British actress known for the James Bond movie “Live and Let Die” and hit TV series “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman” is also an avid visual artist. Her work is currently showing at Sarasota’s Chasen Galleries along with that of her son Sean M. Flynn, a photographer and music video director for bands such as Cold War Kids.

She’ll make two artist appearances Friday and Saturday alongside her work, which will include paintings, sculptures and material that would inspire the Open Heart jewelry collection she designed.

“I’m really looking forward to meeting fans there,” Seymour said in a recent phone interview. “It’s a great time for me to actually meet people and see them and I really love that.”

Interested?

Jane Seymour will appear from 6-8 p.m. Friday and 1-3 p.m. Saturday at Chasen Galleries, 1830 S. Osprey Ave., Sarasota; free; RSVP at 941-260-5787; chasengalleries.com/sarasota

Soon after, Seymour started working on “Dr. Quinn,” which earned her a Golden Globe and revitalized her career. She painted the entire time during the show’s run and continues to this day. While filming her new comedy series “Let’s Get Physical” in Nova Scotia, she took photos there to paint later.

Seymour had another career resurgence when she co-starred in the 2005 comedy “Wedding Crashers,” playing Christopher Walken’s bored and lusting wife Kathleen Cleary, or “Kitty Cat,” and showed her funny side.

“It was absolutely fantastic and it definitely opened up a whole new world for me,” Seymour said. “Since then, I have done so many comedies, it’s unbelievable.”

In February, Seymour spoke to and posed for Playboy for the third time, making her the oldest woman to do so at age 67. In the piece, she discussed feeling sexier and more confident now than ever before, and said she’s gotten very positive feedback, especially from women.

“I think what I was basically saying is be comfortable in your own skin, accept that you’re aging, be the best you can be and don’t feel that there’s a number attached to you that makes you have to give up life,” Seymour said. “Quite the contrary, now you have unique and different opportunities and embrace them.”

She also discussed her personal #MeToo experience in the Playboy article. During a meeting for a role in 1972, a powerful producer made sexual advances that she rejected. The producer told Seymour if she ever mentioned what happened, she’d never work again. So she lied and said she hadn’t gone to the meeting, after which her agent expressed relief because the producer had a reputation.

“I think my point with #MeToo was that the people that were supposed to support and represent me were not, and had I known that he had this reputation, I would have clearly said to my agent, ‘I’m not going,’” Seymour said.

Recently, Seymour reunited with Walken and worked with Robert De Niro on the family comedy “The War with Grandpa,” which has yet to be released as the Weinstein Company deals with Harvey Weinstein’s sexual misconduct allegations. She hopes “Bereave,” the drama co-starring Malcolm McDowell she came to Sarasota Film Festival with, will be released soon as well.

Seymour also recently wrote the book “The Road Ahead: Inspirational Stories of Open Hearts and Minds.” And of course, she continues to make art.

“Everyone says I’m supposed to do one thing and not another,” Seymour said. “I don’t differentiate anything in my life, from my acting, my writing, my public speaking, my art, my design, my playing with my grandchildren. A good day for me is when I’ve been creative.”