Mar 12, 2004  |  By: MARY DAMIANO  | COMMENTS     

Jacqueline Bisset has played some very famous women, from Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis to the Empress Josephine to the mother of all roles, the Virgin Mary.

After more than 70 films, she has reached a point in her career where she doesn’t have to take just any role that comes along; she can wait for roles that challenge her, and perhaps, her audience.

That’s one reason Bisset accepted a key role in “Latter Days,” the film about what happens when a party boy makes a bet to seduce a young Mormon missionary.

“It’s a dangerous script because you’ve got two subjects that are potential quagmires. You’ve got the character of Christian who is such a hedonist, and then the other character is more passive in that he’s having stuff done to him,” she says. “I think it’s very human and one cares about the people.”

Bisset had quite an impact on her role from the beginning. She had liked the script and wanted to be in C. Jay Cox’s first movie, but she had some problems with the character of Lila, the elegant owner of an upscale restaurant where many of the younger characters work.

Lila is a sort of den mother to her young staff, a caring woman who understands their problems. “At the time the character was rather sad and was actually ill,” she says. “I had just played the hell out of a part where I was really ill and I didn’t want to play that again.”

Cox changed the role for her, turning Lila from an ill woman to someone dealing with the pain of taking care of an ill loved one.

Bisset, who has worked with many famous directors, including Francois Truffaut, George Cukor and John Huston, has only compliments for Cox. “I always wonder with a first film if they’re going to know their way around the set,” she says. “He was absolutely in charge of the set and knew his way around very well. There was no indecision at all.”

Bisset, who turns 60 this year, enjoyed being the veteran on the “Latter Days” set.

“I love working with young people and young directors,” she says. “That character brought a certain pain and a certain wisdom to them, which is like life. You bring stuff to younger people and they bring you stuff.”

Although “Latter Days” has sparked controversy, and the Madstone Theatre chain pulled the film from it’s scheduled engagement, Bisset saw no problem with the film.

“I didn’t find it offensive, and I didn’t find the love scenes difficult to watch,” she says. “It’s life-affirming in many ways. You care about the two boys and you want them to love each other.”

HER CAREER BEGAN began in the mid-60s, and she first attracted attention when she played a fringe Bond Girl named Miss Goodthighs in “Casino Royale.” She received international acclaim for her role as a young actress in 1973’s “Day for Night” and kicked off a wet T-shirt craze with her role in “The Deep.”

She has done more than 70 films and counts 1998’s “Dangerous Beauty,” in which she played a mother who teaches her courtesan daughter everything she knows, among her favorites.

“Latter Days” is Bisset’s first gay film. “I never thought I’d be in a gay movie,” she says. “Not for any reason, it’s just that nobody ever asked me.”

As Bisset has gotten older, she’s found interesting roles harder to come by. She doesn’t care whether she acts in TV movies or in theatrical films — to her it’s all just material.

“I don’t have any great career plans,” she says. “I don’t want to do tacky stuff. I would like to do responsible stuff if possible. I try to do different things because I find that it’s boring for the audience and boring for me to repeat stuff.

“Each person brings their own magic based on their human experience and at this point I’ve had a lot of experience in a lot of different areas,” she says. “I’ve been through a lot of joy and a lot of pain, and I’ve got massive springs, so a good line, I can really fill it.”

Although she has enjoyed her long career, Bisset admits that sometimes she has her doubts about the validity of the movie business.

“I vacillate madly from being totally unimpressed with the film business and thinking it’s all becoming very mundane, and sometimes my heart expands with pride and I think this is a valuable job to be doing,” she says. “You’re moving people by something quite beautiful or quite real. It’s more than entertainment.”