Brian Damage
07-07-2012, 07:58 AM
SPURRED on by the success of her own BBC1 comedy, Lisa Maxwell set her sights on Hollywood.
But her dreams of making it in Tinseltown soon became a nightmare of booze, bulimia and insecurity – fuelled by homesickness and early setbacks.
Now in her candid new autobiography, Not That Kinda Girl, the 47-year-old Loose Women panellist tells how she turned her life around, met the love of her life and became a mum.
And she reveals how, just as she became a hit in ITV series The Bill, she was felled by a bitter double tragedy...
I ALWAYS felt I’d suit comedy more if I looked stranger.. unattractive. But it seemed different in America. My heroine was Goldie Hawn – cute, charming, beautiful and hilariously funny.
So a move to the States seemed a good choice. I was 27 and a manager whose aim was to break British acts in the US called me to LA and fixed up some meetings. I’d only spent 10 days there when I was signed to Paramount.
I can still hardly believe it – Lisa Maxwell, a kid from the Elephant and Castle, “Father Unknown”, signed to one of the biggest Hollywood studios.
It was a year’s contract, an advance of £52,000 and a Ford Mustang convertible. But the stakes were high.
I was playing a massive, powerful game I knew nothing about – which could make or break me, professionally and psychologically.
Early on came the role that could have changed my whole life. Handled differently, I could now be a multi-millionaire living in the Hollywood Hills.
The studio planned a series called Frasier and I was told they had a role for me – a Manchester girl, Daphne Moon. I looked at the script, did a bit of work on it, then went to a meeting with some execs.
They asked if I had any questions about the script. My first line was a joke I didn’t get and, because I thought they’d want my opinion, I told them it didn’t seem funny.
I was also told by my manager that the character’s accent wasn’t set in stone and as I’d been told to be myself I suggested it might be better if I played her as a Londoner with my own accent.
I read the part and left. I still thought I’d been contributing to a script meeting. Next day I heard I didn’t get the part. But I didn’t know it was an audition!
“Honey,” I was told, “everything you do in this town is an audition. EVERYBODY auditions.”
I was devastated. It could so easily have been mine. I’d never walk into an audition trying to change things – I genuinely believed it was a done deal.
I’d never cried over losing a job before, but I cried over that.
Frasier went on to be a massive hit and made a fortune for Jane Leeves, but I guess it just wasn’t meant to be for me. It was a huge lesson. It shook my belief that amazing things would happen for me.
The shine had begun to come off my stay in LA and I was increasingly homesick. But I always felt I had to be out on show in case the big offer came along. I didn’t face up to my low mood.
I began drinking a lot. I’d have a nip of vodka before a meeting to give me Dutch courage. But I came to rely on it more and more to get me out there, pretending to be bright, breezy and funny. It became a dangerous habit.
I also became bulimic. I think the main trigger was the Frasier rejection. My life seemed to be spiralling out of control... I stayed in LA for nearly three years. It was an awful, lonely time. I can’t believe I endured it for so long as I did... still pretending my American dream would all work out.
But you know what? I’m glad it went pear-shaped because if I’d stayed in America my personal life would never have turned out so happy.
Back home, I moved in with Mum and Nan. I was 32 and living like a teenager. Then the most amazing day of my life arrived – I met Paul Jessop at a party.
He was tall and blond with that Californian look, like Robert Redford. We talked and talked and talked and have not stopped talking since.
He is the only man who has ever truly known and understood me. And the most amazing thing was he actually liked the real me. I still have to remind myself I’m worth loving. Being with him felt like coming home.
I was never broody or maternal but I wanted a baby with Paul, a part of him. The one thing holding me back was an overriding fear I’d muck it up. But then my period was late. Paul came home and found me perched on the sofa, head in hands. “What’s wrong?” he asked.
“I’ve just done one of those pregnancy thingies...”
“And?” he said, gently.
“I don’t know, I can’t bring myself to look! Will you check?”
And so Paul knew I was pregnant before I did, and came back beaming.
On October 10, 1999, Beau emerged with both arms outstretched as if to say, “Here I am, world!” She was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. Perfect.
All those maternal emotions I didn’t think I had came charging in. A huge surge of wild happiness.
Introducing myself as her mummy, I felt such pride. Paul never took his eyes off us – he was in love with us both.
- Extracted from Not That Kinda Girl by Lisa Maxwell, published by HarperNonFiction on July 7 price £16.99.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/lisa-maxwell-my-la-meltdown-and-finding-138003
http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRyksjMTP0tCv64la3lN3zxLpCgpTldhs0Q863dFF-ZxRub-B1oqwhttp://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRGOjxPmuu-86HxS4HgfRQBDP2V0HdaSU1YPuk5YGWHCPsmhYUh
But her dreams of making it in Tinseltown soon became a nightmare of booze, bulimia and insecurity – fuelled by homesickness and early setbacks.
Now in her candid new autobiography, Not That Kinda Girl, the 47-year-old Loose Women panellist tells how she turned her life around, met the love of her life and became a mum.
And she reveals how, just as she became a hit in ITV series The Bill, she was felled by a bitter double tragedy...
I ALWAYS felt I’d suit comedy more if I looked stranger.. unattractive. But it seemed different in America. My heroine was Goldie Hawn – cute, charming, beautiful and hilariously funny.
So a move to the States seemed a good choice. I was 27 and a manager whose aim was to break British acts in the US called me to LA and fixed up some meetings. I’d only spent 10 days there when I was signed to Paramount.
I can still hardly believe it – Lisa Maxwell, a kid from the Elephant and Castle, “Father Unknown”, signed to one of the biggest Hollywood studios.
It was a year’s contract, an advance of £52,000 and a Ford Mustang convertible. But the stakes were high.
I was playing a massive, powerful game I knew nothing about – which could make or break me, professionally and psychologically.
Early on came the role that could have changed my whole life. Handled differently, I could now be a multi-millionaire living in the Hollywood Hills.
The studio planned a series called Frasier and I was told they had a role for me – a Manchester girl, Daphne Moon. I looked at the script, did a bit of work on it, then went to a meeting with some execs.
They asked if I had any questions about the script. My first line was a joke I didn’t get and, because I thought they’d want my opinion, I told them it didn’t seem funny.
I was also told by my manager that the character’s accent wasn’t set in stone and as I’d been told to be myself I suggested it might be better if I played her as a Londoner with my own accent.
I read the part and left. I still thought I’d been contributing to a script meeting. Next day I heard I didn’t get the part. But I didn’t know it was an audition!
“Honey,” I was told, “everything you do in this town is an audition. EVERYBODY auditions.”
I was devastated. It could so easily have been mine. I’d never walk into an audition trying to change things – I genuinely believed it was a done deal.
I’d never cried over losing a job before, but I cried over that.
Frasier went on to be a massive hit and made a fortune for Jane Leeves, but I guess it just wasn’t meant to be for me. It was a huge lesson. It shook my belief that amazing things would happen for me.
The shine had begun to come off my stay in LA and I was increasingly homesick. But I always felt I had to be out on show in case the big offer came along. I didn’t face up to my low mood.
I began drinking a lot. I’d have a nip of vodka before a meeting to give me Dutch courage. But I came to rely on it more and more to get me out there, pretending to be bright, breezy and funny. It became a dangerous habit.
I also became bulimic. I think the main trigger was the Frasier rejection. My life seemed to be spiralling out of control... I stayed in LA for nearly three years. It was an awful, lonely time. I can’t believe I endured it for so long as I did... still pretending my American dream would all work out.
But you know what? I’m glad it went pear-shaped because if I’d stayed in America my personal life would never have turned out so happy.
Back home, I moved in with Mum and Nan. I was 32 and living like a teenager. Then the most amazing day of my life arrived – I met Paul Jessop at a party.
He was tall and blond with that Californian look, like Robert Redford. We talked and talked and talked and have not stopped talking since.
He is the only man who has ever truly known and understood me. And the most amazing thing was he actually liked the real me. I still have to remind myself I’m worth loving. Being with him felt like coming home.
I was never broody or maternal but I wanted a baby with Paul, a part of him. The one thing holding me back was an overriding fear I’d muck it up. But then my period was late. Paul came home and found me perched on the sofa, head in hands. “What’s wrong?” he asked.
“I’ve just done one of those pregnancy thingies...”
“And?” he said, gently.
“I don’t know, I can’t bring myself to look! Will you check?”
And so Paul knew I was pregnant before I did, and came back beaming.
On October 10, 1999, Beau emerged with both arms outstretched as if to say, “Here I am, world!” She was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. Perfect.
All those maternal emotions I didn’t think I had came charging in. A huge surge of wild happiness.
Introducing myself as her mummy, I felt such pride. Paul never took his eyes off us – he was in love with us both.
- Extracted from Not That Kinda Girl by Lisa Maxwell, published by HarperNonFiction on July 7 price £16.99.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/lisa-maxwell-my-la-meltdown-and-finding-138003
http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRyksjMTP0tCv64la3lN3zxLpCgpTldhs0Q863dFF-ZxRub-B1oqwhttp://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRGOjxPmuu-86HxS4HgfRQBDP2V0HdaSU1YPuk5YGWHCPsmhYUh