Joan Collins ‘out of work for months’ as she warns relative | Films | Entertainment

Acting might seem like a glamorous profession but, warns Dame Joan Collins, between the brief moments in the spotlight are long periods when nothing much happens at all. In her incredible 75-year career, Dame Joan has won innumerable awards, including a Golden Globe, a People’s Choice Award, and two Soap Opera Digest Awards, but she still sees herself as a “jobbing actor” who would take any job to make sure her family was fed.

Now, at 93, Dame Joan is on the promotional trail yet again in support of her new film A Murder Between Friends. But she tells The Times she has also taken the opportunity to support a relative who is trying to follow in her footsteps. Dame Joan’s great-niece India Thain is also in her new movie: “They were looking to cast it and wanted an American woman, and I spoke to the director – a friend of mine – and said that India was an actress,” she explains.

While India is not actually American, Dame Joan insisted that she can “play American”, although she then had to check with India, who assured her that she could.

India is the only member of Dame Joan’s family who has followed her into the acting profession, although when she did, she received a stark warning from her great-aunt: “I warned India that most actors are out of work most of the time. I myself hadn’t worked for ten months before our film,” she said.

Dame Joan added that the reason none of her other relatives had opted to tread the boards is because they are all “smart” enough to realise what a hard life it can be: “They realise how tough the profession is. It’s not just getting dressed and going on red carpets, you know. It’s a tough business. You have to have a carapace the size of a whale to survive rejection, people saying horrible things about you, the lack of care.”

There is also the issue of predatory men who regard sex with young starlets as “their divine right.” Before the #MeToo movement, Dame Joan says she learned early in her career that the best response to any unnecessary behaviour was “a knee to the nether regions.”

She stresses, though, that acting can be a hard career: “I left England at the age of 20 for Hollywood and did whatever I could – film, theatre, TV. It was a living. People say I’ve not been in very good films. Well, I was supporting three children, the breadwinner. I’ve always thought of myself as a jobbing actor and took what I could to keep my children fed and watered.”

With just a handful of credits to her name, including Sharknado 5: Global Swarming, India, 32, has a long way to go to match the stellar career of her famous relative.

But she says she has benefitted from Dame Joan’s guidance: “She has always been very good with advice, always warning me of the dangers of the industry. She knows how hard it can be. I’ve seen her in periods of struggling, of not working, but she always handles things so well. She has this inner strength.”