At age 67, “Let’s Get Physical” actress Jane Seymour has just become a three-time Playboy model — but just as eye-opening as the photos is the story she shared with the magazine about an encounter with a handsy producer in the early days of her career.
In the interview, Seymour recalls meeting with the producer, who wanted her to screen-test for a part, at his home. According to Seymour, the producer put his hand on her leg “in the wrong place” and was unrelenting after she moved away from him on the couch. After Seymour asked him to call her a cab, she said, he told her that if she ever told anyone about the encounter, “I’ll guarantee you never work again anywhere on the planet.”
Speaking to TheWrap on Thursday, Seymour recalled, “He was just chilling, and frightening, and I was terrified.”
Seymour told TheWrap that she later encountered the producer at the same house,”at a big function where there were a lot of people.”
“And he came up to me and said, ‘Don’t I know you from somewhere?’ And I looked at him and I said, ‘Well, if you don’t remember then obviously not,’” Seymour added.
The actress noted that she never confronted the producer about the encounter.
“No. I chose not to. What I realized was that I was just one of thousands,” Seymour said. “That was par for the course for him, it was normal. That’s why he wouldn’t remember me from anyone else. He vaguely did, but he didn’t really.”
Seymour said she would come to learn that the producer — who she characterized as “the most powerful guy in the business” — had an “unbelievable reputation for this. He was famous for this — famous.”
Seymour has a role in The Weinstein Company’s currently-in-limbo film “The War With Grandpa.” Given the numerous accusations of sexual misconduct against Harvey Weinstein, TheWrap asked Seymour if she regrets taking the part.
“I never saw him. I didn’t actually work for him,” Seymour said. “It was another producer, Marvin [Peart] who was the actual producer. And how can you regret working with Robert De Niro? Very hard. And Christopher Walken and Cheech Marin and Uma [Thurman]. So, no, I was very happy to do the project. I’m very sad that it has his name attached, because currently it means that a lot of people won’t see what’s probably a very nice movie.”
“I have no Weinstein stories at all, and I’ve met him on many occasions,” Seymour said. “Like I said, I learned very early on to avoid any situation or circumstance that would not be the way I would want to work in this industry.”
As for modeling for Playboy again at age 67, Seymour, who said she was clothed while previously appearing in the magazine’s pages, said, “I’m thrilled with what they did. I think that, yet again, it goes to prove that you don’t have to show anything to be yourself and to express sensuality in a classy way. I was very happy with what they did.”
She added, “I must admit, walking in and out of the freezing-cold swimming pool was the biggest challenge of the day. But we had a good laugh about that one.”