Jacqueline Bisset Explains Why She Will Never Direct: ‘I Might Become a Monster’

Jacqueline Bisset had “mixed feelings” when presented a Torino Film Festival lifetime achievement honor for a simple reason: “I have not finished my career!”

Even so, she gladly embraced Torino’s invitation to champion the films closest to her heart — many small, independent titles that never found distribution in Italy. “They may not be widely known, but they show an actor’s craft at its best,” Bisset said, noting that she has often been “judged, to some degree, by my earlier work, where the film roles were not great.”

She brought that same candor and enthusiasm to a Sunday press conference, happily sharing anecdotes about her iconic screen partners, while reserving her most generous praise for lesser-known collaborators.

Of Paul Newman, she spoke affectionately of “a truly kind man” who was “shy and terrible at telling jokes because he couldn’t keep a straight face — he would start laughing before getting to the punchline.” Of Mickey Rourke, she admitted, “I had a little fear of him because he creates a kind of frenzy; it just builds around him. He’s there, quietly talking, and all around is chaos.”

And of Kelly Blatz, her co-star in 2022’s “Loren & Rose,” she beamed: “He gave me so much life because he really listened, staying patient through all my long monologues and lines. That’s a real gift, because acting is all about exchange. If you pay particular attention, you can almost force the other actor to be more real — all by simply listening properly.”

“Silence is necessary, and men love to talk about themselves,” she added wryly, noting that this advice, passed down from her parents, has served her well “in life and in cinema.”

Bisset also offered a more practical tip: abandon the saltshaker. “If you don’t want to age or swell like alcoholics, don’t use salt,” she said. “You will discover the true sensitivity of taste in food. It’s fantastic, and it took me some time to learn this — but in Italy, it’s hopeless; nobody listens.”

Food could also become political — a lesson made clear during the shooting of 1974’s “Murder on the Orient Express.”

“The production asked if we were willing to go against the union and shorten the lunch break from one hour to half an hour. I did not accept, because lunchtime was the highlight of the day — when we could sit and listen to Lauren Bacall — and they were asking us to break the rules. Vanessa Redgrave, who was fantastic, wonderful, and a born fighter, said, ‘We must not accept, we must not give in.’”

When it came time to vote, Vanessa led the charge. “I raised my hand and voted, only to realize that no one else did. We completely lost. But Vanessa, truly passionate both as a woman and as an actress, said, ‘That was the only moment of courage in that film.’”

The cookhouse, meanwhile, has become an outlet for Bisset’s self-confessed autocratic instincts.

“I have a great visual sense and I am very efficient, so I would be a fantastic director,” she explained. “I’m also very organized, I don’t like receiving help, and I prefer to have my own kingdom entirely to myself. So it’s better that I do it at home, not on a set.

“I wouldn’t behave very well,” she continued. “I would certainly have problems with personal interaction — loving the wrong person, wanting to please one person and not another. I might become a monster. So I limit myself to doing my job as an actress, staying in front of the camera. And people don’t enter my kitchen.”