Q&A; WITH TWIGGY : Out of Her ‘60s Shadow

Except for the eyes--still startlingly wide and innocent--you might not recognize her. Leslie Hornsby Lawson is 20 pounds heavier than when she was the most famous girl in the world. Her hair is considerably longer, her working-class accent slightly less pronounced. But her friends still call her Twiggy, the nickname she’s had since she was 15.

It was kind of an insult when first bestowed, a not-so-subtle knock at her stick-figure frame. Until it made her famous, she hated her look. Boys never asked her out. School made her miserable. So she quit, taking a weekend job at a hair salon where she began dating a Cockney hairdresser who cut her hair little-boy short, got her to a photographer and somehow wangled the picture onto the fashion page of the London Daily Express, which ran it with the caption: “This is the face of 1966.”

By the time she’d turned 16, Twiggy had become a fashion firestorm . Everywhere she went were mobs of adoring fans, screaming and fainting as if she were a pop star.

She stopped modeling when she was only 20 because director Ken Russell suggested at a party she ought to be an actress and then got her the female lead in his version of “The Boy Friend.” She’s been acting ever since, with a notable run on Broadway in the early ‘80s in “My One and Only” and a short-lived CBS sitcom called “Princesses” in the fall of 1991.

She is 44, with a 14-year-old daughter and homes in England and Los Angeles. She recently talked in her trailer on the Newhall set of “John Carpenter Presents Body Bags,” a Showtime horror trilogy premiering Sunday.

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Question: Are you generally happy with the kind of parts you’re getting these days?

Answer: Well, no actor ever is, are they? Maybe the really big stars. I’d like to do more movies, but it’s really, really tough in my age range. I was very famous once, but I’m not what’s known as a box-office draw. And I do suffer a little bit from having a name from the past, I think. But that’s just a moan, really. I’m very lucky, luckier than most.

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Q: So tell me why you’re doing this show, was it that you didn’t feel your life would be complete unless you’d been chased by a maniac at least once in your career?

A: I’ve never done a proper horror film, and I thought it would be fun. Although I have been screaming and crying for 10 hours and I’m a bit hoarse because of it. Also they tied my hair to a table leg for a while. And people think acting is glamorous? But this, it’s just something different. My whole career has been so diverse, and that’s what I want. I don’t want to do just one thing. I want to have a bash at everything.

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Q: Was acting something you’d always planned on doing?

A: Oh, no. That just happened to me. I never planned to be a model or a singer or a dancer or anything. But life keeps turning new pages. It was just because I met Ken Russell and he insisted on me doing this film. I could have gone on modeling for another 10 years easily. I was only 20 when I quit, and that’s when most people start.

But Ken opened this whole new world for me, and I loved it. He was a great friend and absolutely mad. When he said he wanted to put me in this musical, I thought it was just the champagne talking. I told him no studio in the world would take a chance on me.

But once he has an idea he won’t let go, and that’s how it happened. If people believe in you, sometimes you’ve got to give up your fears and say maybe they’re right. Because the worst it can be is bad. I’m not going to die, you know what I mean? So if I’d said no to Ken, God knows what might have happened. I’d probably be a nice housewife now with three kids. But it was a chance in a million. Who was I to say no?

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Q: Which was scarier, acting or modeling?

A: I think performing. Because modeling is just sitting in front of the camera, really. It does become an art, but my first photograph I was literally plonked in front of the camera, because I was very photogenic and it just happened to be with a wonderful photographer. And I just kind of fell into it.

Someone said to me the other day, “Don’t you wish it was still the ‘60s?” No, I don’t. I love what I’m doing now. I love my life. I’ve got a gorgeous family. I’m much more confident now in myself. Why would I want it to be the ‘60s again?

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Q: So it’s kind of a relief to just be mildly famous.

A: Absolutely. It was mad then. I thought everyone had gone mad. I was this skinny kid, 16 years old, and then suddenly this madness happens. I thought it was all a joke, which is probably what kept me sane. Everyone growing up hates what they look like, but I was really skinny and I was also ever so shy. I’ve come through that part, although I’m still quite shy if I don’t know people.

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Q: And the screaming mobs, was that scary at all?

A: There were certainly scary moments, like arriving in New York and not being able to go out without being descended upon. And the footage of my arrival in Japan is just me crying. I was 17 years old, I didn’t want to go and I was homesick for my mum. But my manager talked me into it. It was an 18-hour flight. I got off the plane. There were hundreds of photographers there, and I just burst into tears.

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Q: You mentioned before that being famous from another era hurts you.

A: I don’t know if it really hurts me, but it is always there. It’s actually been better for me here than in England. There people freeze you. And if you went out into mid-America or the middle of England and said, “Twiggy,” the image most people would draw upon is from the ‘60s. And that’s only natural. I understand that. But sometimes when you’re trying to be taken seriously as a performer and an actress, it makes things harder.