>>Q: I have a very personal question to ask you.
>>Jacqueline Bisset: For the first one?
>>Yeah, start right off with a personal question. >>Okay
>>How do you say your name?
>>BIS-it
>>It is BIS-it >>Mm-hmm, yes
>>This is for all time. No Jacqueline bi-SET?
>>Or bi-SAY >>Or bi-SAY
>>No, it's BIS-it, Scottish
>>ZHAK-leen >>ZHAK-leen
>>which is French >>yeah
>>So, it's an odd name
>>No one gets it right >>No but it doesn't matter
>>How Americanized have you become?
>>Quite
>>Is it alarming?
>>No
I think it's good. I think it's a good combination. I have a sort of
bit of that and a bit of this and a bit of French and a bit of
I think mmm, what is it called? Mongrels are good.
I think it's good to be mixed.
>>What do you feel like though? Do you feel like someone who is from...
>>I feel more, I actually feel like my,
I had something uh
I feel Scottish all of a sudden. It's the most peculiar thing.
My father died about two years ago and
I feel like his blood is in me.
He was different in a way
in terms of a certain kind of spirit, toughness
[laughing] and I can see it coming out in me.
>>Are you confident as an actor?
>>Well I don't know if I'm confident
because some directors tell me I'm not confident as a performer.
They say you, you worry, you you're not sure of yourself and
in fact I think I'm fairly sure.
John Huston said I wasn't sure. He said that in the press to somebody but I,
he felt I distrusted my instincts that
I feel I trust them.
>>When did you know that you wanted to be on stage, be on screen?
>>Without getting too high faluting
I always liked literature and
I was one of a few people in school who enjoyed the Shakespeare class
and I used to go with it,
I think, farther than the other kids did, I,
I didn't find it a drag. I liked it.
I liked using words and
I didn't really go beyond that. I didn't know what that job was.
I didn't know that meant you wanted to be an actress
>>that there was actually a life in it
>>there was a life in it, yes >>Mm-hmm, were you...
>>Apparently, I found out quite recently, I did this thing what I
I talked to my school teacher when I was about five.
She told me that I always was interested in the same subjects.
She said it was very clear to me that you were interested.
You always loved to dance, you always loved English
and you always loved music
and I said, even at five, six?
She said absolutely, clear as a day, I remember very well.
I had no, you know,
because one doesn't have any concept of oneself as a little person.
>>Were you always cursed with such great beauty?
Now, that's a dumb question but you know what I mean.
Were you, when you...?
>>My mother and father
uh I have different feelings about this
and my father said I had nothing to do with it, you see so
he said it was all to be dealt with by my mother and
They made me, and the rest of it I should get along with
so I was not brought up thinking I was particularly...
They used to say
don't get stuck because you're pretty,
you know, try and be attractive rather than pretty,
because the prettiness will go and the attractiveness will stay
and that'll get you through, so I really
have almost had an obsessional
dislike of being called pretty because I represented it...
I represent, I, in my mind I put it together with loss
and failure, of an unhappiness because
that was always thrust at me all the time
>>yeah
>>that you, I was always told a woman must develop herself and
I probably went very strongly into what I was told
and at this point now I'm, I'm a little more relaxed about it.
>>Is it still true that you're never going to get married?
>>I never said that.
>>Why are you quoted as saying that?
>>Well 'cause people say what they feel like don't they?
>>Well, let's straighten out the record right here.
>>Oh, I don't want to straighten out the record.
I don't want to be defined on any... Why do I have to define it? I mean, I
I think marriage is fine. I just
find that I bloom better.
I feel more, more alive if there's a degree of space.
I just have a great need for solitude at times
and it's not that, the question of not loving somebody or...
I find it in any kind of relationship, any combination of relationships of,
and since I was a child, I needed to be alone a lot.
I don't know how you do that when you are formally, absolutely, completely
thrust together all the time.
If I have my time to myself, I'm really very loving.
It's a way I need to replenish and I
I do give a lot in relationships. I believe in giving.
I believe in trying to nurture.
>>You're involved in a long-term relationship now.
>>Well fairly long, yes
>>of some duration >>of some duration >>of significant duration
Will this possibly lead to...
>>I don't know
>>a philosophical change in your position?
>>I don't have a philosophical change.
I feel that what's right for each person is different
and I'm not sure about myself. I waver. I always waver.
>>Do you panic at the thought of marriage?
>>Just a little bit, yes maybe [laughs]
Just a little bit, but I don't know what it is I panic about
although I don't exactly panic, I think
I, I don't know what the difference would be truthfully, I just
>>Give it a try. I'm not...
I'm sitting here advising you about your life
I don't mean to be doing that but why don't you give it a try?
>>Maybe I will
>>I read a quote where you said that you loved being 20
and you loved being 30, now... >>mm-hmm
Yes! I will be saying that I love being 40 too
>>Thank you very much okay >>Yes I will be
>>Are you looking forward to that?
>>I'm not looking forward to it but I'm... What do you mean for God sake? [laughter]
I'm gonna be perfectly fine. >>yeah
>>yes >>yeah
>>I am, and probably 50 too
and I hope once I've got past that part
I shall be a merry, dautie lady, I hope.