Collins, Joan

I love writing, I love acting, going onstage and doing my little one-woman show, and I refuse to be defined by a number, by an age. I think that’s terribly old-fashioned and not relevant in today’s world.But you have to be resilient in this business. Rejection is a part of it. I look with dismay at so many of my fellow actors, fallen by the way because of drink and drugs. My father — he was a theatrical agent — instilled in me that I should develop skin like a rhinoceros, and be like a marshmallow on the inside.1952Ms. Collins in “I Believe in You.”Hulton Archive, via Getty Images1955 “Land of the Pharaohs,” directed by Howard Hawks.Film Publicity Archive/United Archives, via Getty Images1977 Starring in the science fiction film “Empire of the Ants, based on a short story by H.G. Wells.Eddie Sanderson/Getty Images1981 The TV series “Dynasty” made Ms. Collins a household name.ABC Photo Archives, via Getty Images1983 Ms. Collins won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama Series for her role in “Dynasty.”Ron Galella Collection, via Getty Images1992 On Broadway in “Private Lives.”Maria R. Bastone/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images2010 In her one woman show, “One Night With Joan, where she shared stories from her life and career.Walter McBride/Corbis, via Getty Images2017 At the premiere for the film “The Time of Their Lives.”David M. Benett/WireImage, via Getty Images2024 Ms. Collins was a presenter at the Emmy Awards.Mario Anzuoni/ReutersYou also need patience. This business is a waiting game. For example, a script was written for me about the Duchess of Windsor [Wallis Simpson]. I’ve been wanting to do it since the 1980s. We got a green light only a month ago. Years ago I thought it would be wonderful to do a picture about growing up with my sister, Jackie. It just hasn’t come off.It would be set when we were children, during the Blitz. At the time I didn’t feel fear. I didn’t know about the bombings. We would pick up shrapnel in the streets, and in the evening I would put it in my cigar box. We would draw silly pictures of Hitler. We were evacuated 10 or 12 times. We would be in the tube stations, and people would be playing their harmonicas and singing.A question I’m often asked is, “Why are you still working?” It’s such a fatuous thing to say. I keep on working because I love being busy. It’s tiring when I do my one-woman show, going to a new hotel every night. But it’s rewarding. The audience is so responsive. That buoys me.Current and upcoming projects: “Behind the Shoulder Pads, Tales I Tell My Friends,” a memoir; “Joan Collins Unscripted,” a British theatrical tour.This interview has been edited and condensed. More