Down was just a teenager when she rose to fame in the British show ‘Upstairs, Downstairs’
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NEED TO KNOW
- Lesley-Anne Down turned down major roles, including two James Bond movies and The Thorn Birds
- She says she also declined a $6 million Estée Lauder contract at age 22
- Down questions whether acting was the right career path despite her success in TV and film
Lesley-Anne Down is explaining why she turned down a number of high-profile projects in her earlier acting days.
Down, 72, was just a teenager when she rose to fame in the British show Upstairs, Downstairs, which aired on PBS in the U.S.
She went on to star alongside the late Patrick Swayze in North and South and appeared in films like A Little Night Music, as well as television projects Dallas and The Bold and the Beautiful.
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Down was nominated for a Golden Globe for her role in the 1980s miniseries North and South and achieved acclaim for roles in The Pink Panther Strikes Again and other projects. Despite the success, she says she isn’t sure acting was ever the right career path for her.
“My career is quite weird because if I could just go and tell you all the things that I haven’t done for various reasons, turned down, didn’t do, you’d just go, ‘S—, really?’ ” Down says, going on to list the projects she said no to. “Two James Bond movies. The Thorn Birds. The Second Winds of War. Oh, I’ll stop there. I can’t remember. There’s a bunch of others.”
She continues: “Oh, they asked me to be the Estée Lauder girl back when I was 22 for a five-year — well, I think $6 million back then — didn’t do it. So there you go.”
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“So I guess had I gone that route? Oh, my God. I’d probably, no, I’d be dead,” she continues. “No, it’s the truth because I remember when the Estée Lauder thing was being hit on me, and I had all these freaking agents from William Morris say, ‘Lesley, you got…’ ”
“The stress, the pressure was so bad. You see, I do not do well under pressure or stress. I do not,” she confesses.
More recently, Down played British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the 2024 film Reagan, the director’s cut of which is coming to theaters on Sept. 25.
That role, she tells PEOPLE, “was probably the most challenging thing I think I’ve probably ever done.”
To prepare, Down says, she “watched and watched and watched and watched” footage of the late Thatcher, who she says was “an absolute force.”
“I mean, seriously, a complete force of nature,” the actress adds.
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