It’s only fitting that Jacqueline Bisset is now co-starring in the steamy erotic French thriller “Double Lover.”
At 73, Bisset has a classy, classic Hollywood history of thrills, chills and eroticism.
Back in the mid-1960s, soon after the British-born beauty landed in Hollywood, she starred opposite Frank Sinatra in “The Detective,” and, most memorably, Steve McQueen in the now iconic “Bullitt.”
With “The Deep,” a 1977 underwater thriller, photos shot on location of Bisset in a wet T-shirt immediately cast her as a sexual icon, a status she rejected.
Bisset’s presence in “Double Lover,” from France’s Francois Ozon (“The Swimming Pool”), is an homage in a film that nods to Brian De Palma’s thrillers “Body Double” and “Dressed to Kill.”
“It is a sexy thriller, but my part,” Bisset said with a laugh, “certainly isn’t.”
Fame has always made her uncomfortable.
“There’s something about being a celebrity which is embarrassing and puts people at a distance from you. I’m not interested in that. I want people to interact with me as a real person.”
Remarkably, Bisset’s half-century career has never had a lull: She just keeps working.
“I’ve never particularly liked big roles,” she says of “Anna Karenina” or her Jackie Onassis-inspired heroine in “The Greek Tycoon.”
“I like medium-size roles. I learned that early on, when I starred in films that I didn’t enjoy particularly.”
Currently, she says, “I’ve done interesting things. I say no quite a lot, but I say yes. ‘Magic Lantern’ was an adventure,” as was “Best Day of My Life,” a musical with Sarah Jessica Parker.
Although she has homes in England and Beverly Hills, she lives a gypsy life.
“It can be a little lonely,” she said of location filming. “I think of it as you go to serve the film. You don’t always have the most incredible personal experience, but you take it on the attitude of ‘Let me keep my mind clear so I can just do the work.’
“In a way, I find it easier to go by myself rather than bring somebody with me and have to worry about them. Throughout my life, I’ve found it easier to do that and concentrate.
“I do get quite high-strung — and cover it well. I wouldn’t say exactly it’s loneliness, but emotionally you are on your own and you have to find what the director wants and also please your character.”
