(2 of 2)
To land the Forsyte role, Susan arranged her initial meeting with Producer Donald Wilson at a French restaurant in London. She arrived early and managed to be deep in fluent conversation with the maitre d'hotel when he arrived. "She knew," says Wilson, "that Fleur was half French. I thought that was an intelligent girl. And at once I was caught by her tremendous vivacity and the fact that she was very much a '20s figure, which was very important for Fleur." His casting choice was impeccable, for in every way she held her own in that top-class company. "The Saga," says Co-Star Eric Porter, "was her first opportunity to show her true merit and full range—love, hate, envy, remorse and so on—and she showed that she can be a sensitive, intelligent and deeply revealing actress."
After she finished Saga, Susan found her Frenchman. He turned out to be Pierre Granier-Deferre, who directed her first nude scene (with Charles Aznavour) in Paris in August and then married her. She now shuttles between a couple of cottages in Chelsea and an apartment in suburban Paris. France is for weekends and vacation, because it is about the only civilized country in the world where Susan has any privacy —Saga has not played there yet.
Now 29, Susan is temporarily retired while awaiting her first child. After that she would like to do a season with the British National Theater, and make serious films. In her TV and movie roles since Fleur she has been typecast once more. But this time Susan Hampshire likes it. "I love playing what people call bad characters," she says. "They've got so much character."