Actress & Model Fiona Lewis Takes Us Inside Hollywood And Her French Chateau

Namita Nayyar (WF Team)

7 years ago

Fiona Lewis

Former model and actress, Fiona Lewis is the wife of Hollywood producer Art Linson (Untouchables, Sons of Anarchy, Great Expectations). She did modeling in the 1960’s & 70’s with roommate Jacqueline Bisset, Hollywood legends like Margaret Sullavan, Peter Fonda, Roman Polansky, her near-marriage to Patrick John Anson, the 5th Earl of Lichfield (and cousin to the Queen) and her French Chateau. MISTAKES WERE MADE, her new work, is a coming of age memoir – with lessons for those in their 50s and beyond but also for those in their teens and 20’s.

Fiona Lewis was a model and actress in the sixties and seventies. Her credits include Roman Polanski’s The Vampire Killers, Ken Russell’s Lisztomania, and Brian de Palma’s The Fury. She is the author of the novel Between Men, and her writing has also appeared in the New Yorker, The Observer and the Los Angeles Times. She may be (she candidly admits) the only woman in America who has written for the New Yorker and posed for Playboy.

Lets read through Fiona Lewis’ spectacular journey in her exclusive interview with Namita Nayyar, President Women Fitness.

Ms. Namita Nayyar:

You are best known for your multiple acting roles and your appearance in Playboy Magazine. Tell us about your incredible acting journey and how it all began?

Ms. Fiona Lewis:

It began really when Roman Polanski cast me in a small part in “The Fearless Vampire Killers.” I was sharing a bedsitter in London with Jacqueline Bisset. At the time and she had done “Cul de Sac” with Roman the year before. She took me to meet him in the then famous Ad Lib Club where at the time everyone in London went: Mick Jagger, Paul Mc Cartney, Julie Christie, etc. I only had a few lines in the film but he showed me how to say them simply, without pretense, to throw them away. He didn’t speak perfect English then, he’d been living in Paris, and so we often spoke in French. Actually, whatever I initially learned about acting ( to do less), I can say that I got from him.

Full Interview on Next Page!

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Ms. Namita Nayyar:

Introduce us to your new book, Mistakes Were Made (Some in French).

Ms. Fiona Lewis:

“Mistakes Were Made (some in French)” is about a woman getting to a certain age and realizing suddenly that everything she thought was going to happen to her has happened already. In other words, her life was in the past. Or seemed to be. What to do?

Depressed, I felt I had to leave Los Angeles. Even after 20 years there, as an English woman, I still felt like an alien. So I bought a ruined chateau in France. Having spent my childhood summers in Saint Tropez, then gone to university in Grenoble, near the French Alps, I was nostalgic, longing to get back there. The chateau was reasonably cheap ( about $300,000) and sat on 8 acres of rolling hills, with beautiful empty farmland beyond. I pretended not to notice the fact that it had no bathrooms or a kitchen or even workable electricity! I was so taken by the view and the old bones, the large rooms with high ceilings and marble fireplaces.

Initially, I thought my escape was about getting a house and restoring it. But while I was there I started thinking about my life: London in the 60’s, past affairs, acting in some good, some bad movies, my somewhat tragic first marriage to a man who belonged to a famous Hollywood family. I realized then that my “escape” to France, restoring this chateau, battling with a group of impossible French workmen, was really about something else. Alone in the countryside, I had to come to terms with my life: getting older, not having children. I also had to confront the problems I was having with my current marriage, which at the time I didn’t think was salvageable.

Ms. Namita Nayyar:

Tell us about your modeling days in the 1960’s & 70’s with roommate Jacqueline Bisset, Hollywood legends like Margaret Sullavan, Peter Fonda, Roman Polansky.

Ms. Fiona Lewis:

Jackie and I got work but we weren’t perfect models. We didn’t have the right bodies – far too curvy. This was the era of Twiggy when girls had to have greyhound thin lines. In the 60’s you had to present yourself to photographers for auditions, and sometimes those studios were a long way away. We spent a lot of time standing at bus stops, in the rain, freezing, clutching our boxes of photographs. When you got to some trendy guy’s studio you were lucky if they offered you a cup of tea. And usually they would try to seduce you.

In a way, we both slipped into acting – as you could do in those days. Jackie moved to Hollywood when she got the part with Steve Mc Queen in “Bullit,” and I stayed to do a couple of English movies. The first was Roman Polanski’s “The Fearless Vampire Killers” with Sharon Tate. Roman and I had been having an affair but we were friends by the time I did the movie, when he fell in love with Sharon. We all became very close and only by chance did I not go to visit Sharon in Los Angeles at the time of the Manson murders. At the last minute, I got a part in another movie. So one tragedy was averted, though the news of her death was horribly shocking.

After doing “Listomania”–– director Ken Russell’s crazy take on the life of Franz Liszt, played by Roger Daltrey of The Who–– I did follow Jackie Bisset to California. Soon after, I married Bill Hayward, son of the famous producer Leland Hayward (“Spirit of St. Louis,” “The Sound of Music”) and actress Margaret Sullavan. I never knew him –– or Margaret; she had committed suicide some years before. But she had been married to Henry Fonda before Leland and so Peter Fonda was a close friend of ours. Bill and he had a company together and they produced “Easy Rider,” directed by Dennis Hopper. There were Hollywood dinners with the old crowd, friends of Bill’s parents: Audrey Hepburn, the Billy Wilders, Gloria and James Stewart –- who had starred in two films with Bill’s mother. But the marriage was not a success. Bill was under the famous parent’s shadow; he had emotional problems, not uncommon in children of famous parents, and after eight years we divorced.

Ms. Namita Nayyar:

What exercises comprise your fitness regime or workout routine?

Ms. Fiona Lewis:

My fitness regime consists of walking a lot, and pilates, which I find is the most efficient way of maintaining a strong core. As a writer it’s so easy to become hunched over, slumped, sitting in a seat all day. Plus a little weight lifting for those sagging arms!

Ms. Namita Nayyar:

With the kind of hectic lifestyle that you have, do you follow any healthy diet to remain physically fit?

Ms. Fiona Lewis:

I do follow a healthy diet. When I was in my 50’s I had a bad case of Candida that affected my digestion, my mood and my energy. I had to stop eating all sugar, pasta, bread. What happened was that I felt better right away. My body changed, I no longer got winter colds, or was depressed. I became optimistic again.

I still keep to this diet – I have a feeling that a lot of women in America, without knowing it, have a mild form of Candida, caused by wheat allergies. New types of wheat have been developed containing far more gluten than before and the body can’t tolerate it–– which is why there are so many digestive aids now on the market! Sugar is the enemy, of course. It’s hard to give it up entirely, but sometimes a banana is just as good as a cookie. It’s also impossible to put on weight if you stick to a non-sugar, no bread, no pasta, no soda diet. I am the same weight that I was in my 20’s!

Ms. Namita Nayyar:

You have glowing skin and gorgeous hair. Share with us your haircare and skincare routine.

Ms. Fiona Lewis:

To be honest, I don’t buy expensive creams for my skin. I take vitamins. I put coconut oil or avocado oil on my face, body and hair and make face packs out of whipped egg white! But beauty does come from the inside – so I really think it’s a lot to do with diet.

Ms. Namita Nayyar:

MISTAKES WERE MADE is a coming of age memoir – with lessons for those in their 50’s and beyond but also for those in their teens and 20’s. What are these lessons that are common for both ages?

Ms. Fiona Lewis:

What I learned writing MISTAKES WERE MADE ( some in French) is that nothing much has changed since the 60’s. About love, that is. Relationships are hard and need to be worked at and having a good self-esteem means you shouldn’t necessarily need to rely on someone else to make you happy. Unfortunately, I do think a lot of women, of any age, are still waiting for a man to save them. And of course self-esteem is not always easy to come by. So you must create your own persona, your own adventures. If you don’t like your current situation do everything you can to change it. Don’t blame anyone else. Don’t be a victim–– that’s too easy: it’s never your fault! Take responsibility for your life.

Ms. Namita Nayyar:

You are also the only woman in America who has written for the New Yorker and posed for Playboy. How do you feel about this unique achievement?

Ms. Fiona Lewis:

When I came to America I posed for Playboy because I needed the money. I was never embarrassed about this. I was liberated enough (thought I didn’t realize it) to think it was okay to be naked. I knew I had a brain, I was already writing pieces for the Los Angeles Times. In a way, of course, I was also naïve. I was astounded when other people (men, mostly) were shocked to see me in Playboy. A nice girl like me! But I’m glad I did it now––that young body has gone! Again, I learned that attitude is everything. If you seem confident, people will see you like that and treat you accordingly. Admittedly sometimes you have to fake it!

Ms. Namita Nayyar:

You also have a blog called Fiona’s French Chateau, where you write about restoring your French chateau, stories about London and Paris in the 60’s, Los Angeles in the 70’s, and your time working as an actress. Introduce us to it.

Ms. Fiona Lewis:

Restoring the French chateau was much more of a challenge than I realized. First of all, the stories you hear about French workmen are all true. And worse! In France, they still take a 2 hour lunch break; they go to a local bistro and have a 3 course meal and drink a bottle of wine. So the afternoons are not that productive – sometimes they don’t come back at all! Also, I was alone, without a contractor (none were available locally) and I thought I could manage. But I often had to resort to tears to get things done. It did, however, give me time to reflect on my life: my past bad affairs, my career as an actress, my current marriage. And also my fear of aging. It was all very well to run away, of course, but I’d forgotten that I had brought myself with me! It gave me the opportunity to confront my life, who I was now, who I wanted to be. After all, it wasn’t over! In the countryside I learned to appreciate what I had, to realize how lucky I’d been. I can honestly say that going to France saved me–– and my current marriage. I think everyone needs their own “chateau in France.” It can be something small, an idea, an adventure to pursue, even a new hobby, or a new friend. What building the chateau taught me was that however old you are, however lost you might feel, refuse to give up!

Ms. Namita Nayyar:

What do you wish to say about the website Womenfitness.net and message for our readers?

Ms. Fiona Lewis:

Health is beauty. Humor is essential. Optimism is sexy.

Know more about her journey on: