Ashley Jensen has admitted she doesn’t miss working in Hollywood.
The Scottish actress returned to the UK in 2010 after five years starring in hit US comedy Ugly Betty and confessed she is happier working back in the UK.
Ashley revealed: “I don’t miss the veneer of it.”
Ashley Jensen had a taste of Hollywood when she co-starred with America Ferrera in Ugly Betty (Chris Pizzello/AP/PA)
She went on: “I found all that quite wearing, knowing everyone was aspiring to be something rather than being present, do you know what I mean?
“Rather than saying, ‘That’s a nice cup of coffee, I like your necklace’, everything was a little, ‘I’m gonna be, I’m gonna be, and I want to be, I want to be’.
“When I went to America, I came back [to the UK] and I felt like I wanted to personally simplify my life a bit. I think people get to a point in their lives, where they want to do that a little bit. I don’t want stylists and publicists and somebody who blows leaves in the garden for me.
“I felt awfully uncomfortable with that sort of life.”
Ashley Jensen is happy to be back in the UK (Jon Furniss Photography/Invision/Press Association Images)
She continued: “I played at Hollywood, and I’m really glad I did it. I enjoyed it, and I absolutely went for it and had everything I could – the manicures and the publicists… But there came a point where I just wanted to hide up a hill and pretend Twitter wasn’t happening.
“I’m very happy where I am now.”
The 45-year-old actress is starring in Sky1 Christmas crime caper Agatha Raisin And The Quiche Of Death, which will screen on Boxing Day.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Dd8JtNMtX0&feature=oembed
In the one-off drama, based on the bestseller by MC Beaton, she plays high-powered publicist Agatha, who swaps life in the city for the tranquillity of the Cotswolds. Peace is short-lived though, and she finds herself embroiled in a murder mystery triggered by the quiche she makes to win over the villagers.
“It’s the first time I’ve done something like that, where it’s me at the helm of it, and I enjoyed it,” she revealed.
“I think most actors quite like something they can be in where they have a beginning, middle and an end. I’ve played a lot of characters who have been the best friend, so it was nice to be a person, a woman in her 40s, leading a series.
“There’s not that many of them, really. There are a lot of really male influenced things out there.”
Agatha Raisin And The Quiche Of Death is on Sky1 on Friday, December 26.
