Actress Stefanie Powers, who starred in the popular ABC series "Hart to Hart" in the late 1970s and '80s with Robert Wagner, spends much of her time now working toward conservation and the humane treatment of animals. Her relationship with the late actor William Holden led her to become director of the Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy and Game Ranch in Africa and president of the William Holden Wildlife Foundation.
In the past 16 months, she has dealt with the death of her mother and her own treatment for lung cancer. The 67-year-old actress stars in the Hallmark Channel's original movie "Meet My Mom," airing at 9 p.m. MDT Saturday.
Excerpts from an interview:
Question: You play a mother and a grandmother in the movie.
Answer: We are dealing (in the film) with a young woman, my daughter, whose marriage didn't work, who has a child and is trying to do the best she can in a difficult economy. She comes home to live and begins to rebuild her life and is very wary of any involvement again, which is something I think a lot of women are facing.
Question: Is playing a mother and grandmother a difficult transition for you or a natural progression?
Answer: Oh, well, it is what one hopes will be the natural progression of a long career. One should at least hope, when they're young and entering this business, that they have longevity enough to be able to play all the wonderful parts that are available as we journey through life.
Question: How have you dealt with the aging process?
Answer: For a start, I'm maniacal about exercise. I'm a vegetarian, not a vegan, and I try to do the best I can to be aware of health hazards and do what I can to sustain myself in the most sensible way. Yes, I'd like to be on the 105-year plan, but only if the quality of those 105 years is good.
Question: Have you finished your autobiography?
Answer: I've got about three chapters left to do. I saved the toughest for last. It is a fascinating process. It was inspired by two dramatic and life-changing events for me — the loss of my mother, with whom I had an unusually close relationship (we shared a home for 27 years); and my own bout with cancer.
Question: I didn't realize. When did you have that bout?
Answer: I was diagnosed about two months before my mother died. The surgery was scheduled a week after she died. So it was a very trying time, as you can well imagine. One that brings, I think as a natural side effect, a tremendous reassessment of life, ourselves, our past, our present.
Question: What were those first months like without her there?
Answer: I was going through my own drama, and it was unavoidable that I have the surgery. So I was in the midst of mourning her when I had to have the top of my lung removed. It's been a gradual six months, a year, of dismantling her room, looking over her papers, her photographs, all that brought up so much of my own history, which was lived through and with her. The many adventures that we had — we traveled a lot together and did some wonderful trips around the world.
Question: Was she responsible for your love of languages and linguistic skills?
Answer: Well, Polish was my first language. We spoke Polish at home. My brother sort of rejected it when he went to school. I was able to retain some of it, which has been very valuable to me. My grandmother had spoken 14 languages. So there were lots of languages in the house. I could probably say we had a tremendously European influence in our upbringing.
Question: How did getting involved with William Holden change the trajectory of your life?
Answer: Ahh, well, I was always an animal person, but I think to the degree that it has overtaken my life (laughing) I never really could have imagined that. I suppose it's partly his legacy. He placed some of the responsibility in my hands for some of the work he was doing in Africa and then I extrapolated on it. It was easy to do. There are so many circumstances which are desperate for certain species. I spend so much time in the field and in the places around the world where there are some rather desperate circumstances.
Question: When you have such extraordinary onscreen chemistry as you did with Robert Wagner in "Hart to Hart," does it inspire doubt in your off-screen partners?
Answer: It's apples and oranges. That's my job to be another person. That's what I do for a living. (Laughing) Certainly there are instances, and quite frequently, where people fall in love with their co-stars. At the same time, there are an awful lot of people who are extremely good with their fellow actor onscreen in romantic circumstances and are married to other people in very healthy relationships. It has to do with the individual. I think there is one rule of thumb that works for everybody and that is nobody destroys a good relationship. There is no way of saying, "She took him away from me." Unless he wanted to go, nobody takes somebody away from you.
Dist. by Scripps Howard News Service