‘Call The Midwife’ star Jenny Agutter doesn’t "feel any different" to when she was a sex symbol in her 20s.
The 62-year-old actress accepts she is now longer the object of men’s attention but was shocked when someone thought she was Mary Whitehouse – an English social activist famous for her censorship campaigns who died in 2001 aged 91.
Jenny – who appeared in nude scenes in ‘Walkabout’ and cult horror film ‘An American Werewolf In London’ – said: "I don’t feel any different (now) but I know I’m not that young woman that (people) might have been fantasising about (any more). "(Someone said to me,) ‘Oh! You’re Mary Whitehouse!’ I immediately went to the lavatory and had a look at myself. How old do I look?"
Getting older hasn’t stopped the actress from getting work though. Having started acting very young in ‘Railway Children’, she has been landing roles ever since, and unlike some of her peers she’s optimistic about the opportunities for older women in film and TV.
Speaking to The Guardian newspaper, Jenny – who plays Sister Julienne in ‘Call The Midwife’ – said: "There are many more women in the production of film, television and theatre. There are many more women visible in political, artistic and other roles later on in life and I think that the media industry has come to realise that their audience is not only 14 to 25 year olds. Women play a big part."
Jenny Agutter was mistaken for Mary Whitehouse
