It
was a helluva lunch date. But that's just what you might expect
when your fellow diner is the actress who plays TV's latest
superbitch - Stephanie Beacham, who sizzles every Sunday evening
as man-eating Connie.
No
sooner had the prawn cocktail arrived than the 36-year old
actress launched into her views on men, marriage and her naughty
past - views that might even make Connie's hair curl.
By
the time the meal was over, Stephanie, unrecognisable from her
wasted look as Rose in Tenko, told me:
- She
believes arranged marriages are best.
- Men
once ruled her life, but no longer.
- She
believes divorcing her husband, actor John McEnery, is "of
no importance" although they separated years ago.
- Her
nude bed scenes with Marlon Brando in The Nightcomers
had a seasoned director blushing.
It
was during a break from filming Connie in Nottingham that
outspoken Stephanie met me for lunch at the Palm Court restaurant.
Learned
Eyes
swivelled as she swept in. Is she like Connie?
"Where
Connie and I are alike is that everything I have done
has been because of men," she said. "Anything I've
learned goes back to men. I became an actress because I fell for
an actor who started a theatre company.
"I
think now that he was a poof at the time - and he's right out of
acting. I met the man I was to marry, actor John McEnery, when I
was 17.
"I
was 25 when we married and, while we've been separated for
years, we've never got round to a divorce. I think of myself as
a single parent." Stephanie's children are Phoebe, 10, and
Chloe, eight.
Stephanie
explains: "I have a spanking new house and there is a man
in my life, an actor, who doesn't live with me. He's a smashing
friend.
"Getting
a divorce is of no importance and I certainly don't want to
marry again. Yet I'm no good without a boyfriend and would hate
not to have one.
"I
don't intend to start washing socks. I want a complete confidant
with whom I can hold hands in trust, and not a domestic
situation."
Contract
"I'm
now taking a more global look at marriage as I think we in the
West have got it wrong. I was raised on Walt Disney and the
story that you fell in love and got married.
"What
they didn't say was that marriage is an economic contract for
the protection of the family, and I don't think we have a strong
family system in the West.
"I
believe that arranged marriages (such as they have in the East)
are the most sensible."
What
has delighted her was discovering Connie's lover in the
TV series, actor Richard Morant, is a Buddhist. She has also
turned to Buddhism.
"Is
it any wonder our acting relationship is so good?" she
asks. "Our scenes come off marvellously. For what it's
worth I'm told I have psychic powers, and I believe in
after-life, the spirit world, and spiritual healing."
As
Connie, star of the peak-hour rag trade serial, she
plays a sexy, gutsy, ambitious, and man-pulling lady who,
nudging 40, intends nothing in trousers to get in her way.
"Connie
is the best woman's role I've ever read," Stephanie purrs. "I've
spent 10 months playing her and love her streetwise intelligence
and the way she thinks on her feet. But she does have a heart.
"I
was two years playing Rose, another strong part, in BBC-TV's
Tenko, and I'm hoping that Connie and Rose
between them can bridge the career gap between being a pretty
thing to being a grown-up actress."
How
close is her own life to the tough, vengeance-seeking woman she
is playing with such impact as Connie?
"I'm
not as hard as her. I've been too outspoken and a bit naughty in
the past for my own career good.
"At
21 I was making the film, The Nightcomers, with Marlon
Brando - who was smashing - and the nude scenes attracted a lot
of attention.
Giggling
"Director
Michael Winner - and he's a hard man - was so embarrassed by
what we got up to that he slid under the bed giggling. I wasn't
embarrassed because I was only acting, but as myself I refused
to do sexy shots for the publicity."
This
eye-catching actress comes from a well-to-do Hertfordshire
family. Her father, now retired, was a managing director for
various major companies.
"Unlike
Connie I'm a snob," she admits. "I have
marvellous parents and my life as a child was cosy - red velvet
curtains, dogs, cats and ponies."
Her
role as Rose in Tenko brought her much acclaim. But it
was not without its problems. She developed anorexia nervosa
while starving herself for the part.
"For
six weeks I had nothing but cauliflower, cottage cheese, and
orange juice," she explained.
"I
was disgusted if I saw piles of food, and even more disgusted to
see people eating it.
"So
I had to be the thinnest member of the cast. I weighed seven and
a half stone and when I looked at myself stark naked I thought I
was fat. It was then someone spotted that I wasn't eating."
There
is no sign of her problem today. She is a healthy-looking beauty
with curves.
She
dresses like the lovely Connie and it's difficult to
imagine her any other way. But she has a confession.
"Connie's
in the fashion game and dresses stunningly for most of the
time," she says. "Whereas I'm a terrible tat merchant
who often buys clothes at jumble sales."
