BUCKS FREE PRESS .. MARCH 22ND 2013 ...

 

JOAN COLLINS on beauty tips, staying fit and looking good

2:30pm Friday 22nd March 2013 By Rebecca Cain

Joan Collins on beauty tips, staying fit and looking good. The glamorous film and TV star spoke about her beauty tips, staying looking so young, and her show coming to the Wycombe Swan next month.

Joan Collins has been on the stage since she was nine, although she has never been to the Swan Theatre before.
She is bringing her own tour of One Night With Joan to High Wycombe in April, which will see Joan tell stories from her long career from Dynasty to Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat to Footballer's Wives, with lots of clips from the various shows.
And she said she simply loves doing it: "Audiences are all different. Sometimes they are all laughing at everything you say.
"Sometimes they sit there and rarely move a muscle. "That is one of the exciting things about live theatre is that you never know."
But one thing you are always sure to know about Joan is she will look immaculate, without a hair out of place and picture perfect make-up.

But Joan does not have a stylist or a hairdresser or a make up artist- she does it all herself.
And she said the most important thing is to be comfortable in what you are wearing. She designed the dress she wore to the Oscars in February.
She said: "Most of my evening dresses and cocktail dresses I design myself. I am a strange shape. I am much bigger on the top than I am below. I have quite small hips but broad shoulders and back- like an upside down pear.
"So I can't buy off-the-peg dresses."
But how does she manage to stay looking so trim and healthy?
She said: "I am very fit. I have exercised all my life. Somebody asked me once, 'What would you bring back to England that you had when you were a child?
"Playing fields and playgrounds. I was always out playing and exercising. "We had physical education. I have exercised all my life but not to the extent where I now have broken hips and broken knees. "I keep moving all the time. I stretch- it is very important to stretch.
"I stretch every part of my body for about five minutes, even if I don't exercise."
Joan said her mother encouraged herself and her siblings to make the best of themselves and look after their skin, and she has been using moisturiser on her face since she was 14.
She said: "What I find is people do seem to spend so much time cruising the net on their computer. They sort of don't give themselves enough time for personal maintenance.
"Yeah it takes time but so does cleaning your teeth or washing your hair."
When she starred in Dynasty she said she had all her dresses made and clothes were run up for her overnight. Joan starred as Alexis Carrington in the soap opera from 1981 to 89. And she has had lasting success on screen.
She said: "In the show I say something like isn't it amazing how lucky hard working people are? I was on stage first when I was nine-years-old."
"My parents, particularly my father, gave me some good rules. Don't ever expect anyone to do it for you. Do it yourself.
"I never got anything from my parents- money or praise. Both my sister and my brother- we did it ourselves. We worked hard and realised life doesn't owe you anything.
"You have to put what you want out of life into it."
Behind the scenes of her show is her husband, Percy Gibson, who she married in 2002.
She said: "You have to really look after each other. You have got to get to know each other before you start falling in love so you really know each other. "Too many people fall in love instantly."
And I couldn't finish the interview without asking about the Star Trek episode she starred in, The City On The Edge of Forever, which BFP editor Steve Cohen raves about.
She said: "Yes it is amazing. When I did it, it was just another gig as I was doing a lot of TV at the time. So many people think that is the best Star Trek ever."
One Night With Joan is at the Wycombe Swan on April 7 at 7.45pm. Tickets are £30 to £32.50 from 01494 512000 or go to  www.wycombeswan.co.uk