Only Fools and Horses star Tessa Peake-Jones feared losing work over grey hair
Only Fools and Horses star Tessa Peake-Jones has admitted she feared she would lose out on acting work if she let her hair go grey or if she arrived at an audition wearing her glasses.
Tessa Peake-Jones feared she would lose out on acting work if she let her hair go grey.
The Only Fools and Horses star, 68, who played Del Boy's wife Raquel in the BBC sitcom, has confessed she's been dyeing her hair for years and she also trained herself to wear contact lenses over fears she would be turned down for parts if she arrived an audition wearing her glasses.
During an appearance on the How To Be 60 podcast, Tessa explained: "In our job as actors - because some of it is still on look and age - when I used to go up for jobs, if I went to do readings with my glasses on, I never got the job.
"I have now trained myself to wear contact lenses, which I don’t like - I don’t think it’s natural to have something in your eyeballs - but I had to, because I couldn’t read in the room if I didn’t have my glasses on. Now, it might be mad and maybe I am imagining it, but I don’t think I am."
She added of her hair: "My mum was grey when she was 40, but again, in my job, if you turn up with grey hair, you’re not going to get the job I’m afraid, unless they’re looking for the typical grandmother.
"It’s a shame. It’s narrow mindedness on behalf of some people who cast, or directors."
Tessa has been looking back on her time in Only Fools and Horses as part of a new documentary titled Only Fools and Horses: The Lost Archive and she's revealed it was tough for her co-star Sir David Jason, 85, to watch footage of himself as a young man in the show as it made him "quite sad".
During the podcast, she explained: "It was a little bit torturous sitting and watching all this stuff and it was harder for David Jason, because some of the scenes of him were 45 years ago and he’s now 83 [sic].
"He was quite sad at one point. I said: 'Are you ok?’ and they filmed our reaction. And he said: 'No, I’m finding it quite sad.' I said: 'Why is that?’ and he said: 'Well, there we were at our peak'.
"And now he’s a man in his 80s. It’s very different to look back 45 years and see how brilliant you were then and now you’ve moved on. It was quite moving."
However, Tessa also struggled to rewatch her own scenes in the show, adding: "It’s like looking at a photograph, or listening to your voice on an answer machine.
"t’s bad enough now. Imagine seeing yourself in your so-called prime and heyday 30 years ago, it’s really weird. It’s like looking at someone who isn’t you really.
"You know it is, but you’re so different from that now. And you’ve had so many things happen to you in your life since then, that have altered the way you are now.
"You want to say to that person 30 years ago on the telly screen - if only you knew what was coming ahead. But, of course, you can’t.
"All you can do is go: 'Oh God, my hair looked awful', 'Oh, I haven’t got much lipstick on'.
"And you start to pick at yourself again, so that’s the reason I’ve never watched myself. I can’t be objective. I just see negative things. Some people can watch themselves and learn and really get better. I can’t, I’m no good at that."
