The Unexpurgated interview with Linda Evans

Some have called the ’80s the age of excess. Everything was bigger then – bigger hair, bigger credit lines, bigger shoulder pads. And nothing encapsulated that sense of largesse than a TV series called Dynasty. Here’s one of the stars of Dynasty, who played Krystle Carrington, talks about what it was like.

THEY SAY THE ’80S HAVE SHAPED THE WAY WE LIVE NOW. WAS IT THAT WAY FOR YOU? It totally and completely changed my life. I was 39 when Dynasty came along. In those days, they rarely hired women of that age to be leads on TV. So Aaron Spelling did something really unique by hiring me and Joan, who was a little older than me, and making us the “women” of the show. Certainly that was unique in itself. And that I would want to have a career that late in my life and a show like Dynasty would come along and be such a success for nine years was also something rather extraordinary. So the ’80s were very good to me.

EVERYBODY NOT ONLY REMEMBERS THE GOINGS-ON IN THE CARRINGTON HOUSEHOLD, BUT ALSO THOSE CLOTHES! Aaron Spelling broke another rule and he spent more money from the budget on clothes than any that came before or since. We were very fortunate because that was every woman’s dream, we could have anything from anywhere. We would go shopping in Beverly Hills and just point and have racks of clothes sent to wear in the show. And Nolan Miller who had designed Barbara Stanwyck’s clothes, Lana Turner’s and all those wonderful stars, personally designed things for us for the nine years as well. We were spoilt, to say the least.

DO YOU CRINGE WHEN YOU SEE OLD PHOTOS OF YOURSELF IN THAT SHOW? There are some outfits and some hairdos that I go, ‘What was I thinking?’ But you know, sometimes you don’t intend to wear something that makes people laugh. With everything there come mistakes, so you just go, ‘Oh well, never going to wear anything like that again!’

WERE YOU SURPRISED BY THE WORLDWIDE RECEPTION OF THE SHOW? It was a surprise, because you don’t do a TV show thinking that’s going to happen. As Dynasty unfolded all over the world, it was a surprise to all of us, that it caught on so big and had that kind of impact. Such that when I went to a country that I’d never been to before, people would come out of the stores, and go, ‘Oh, it’s Krystle!’ That woman had friends everywhere. It just surprised me. I went to the Vatican to see the pope and there were thousands of priests in the square, and they would go, ‘Hey Krystle!’ and I thought, ‘Oh my god, even the priests are watching the show’.

THE ’80S WERE ALSO KNOWN AS THE AGE OF EXCESS. DID YOU HAVE ANY EXCESSES? Well, I don’t know. I bought beautiful jewellery in Rome from Bulgari – things that I have that I never have worn since Dynasty. They’re in boxes and just sit there as a memory of the time.

WHAT IS THE BIGGEST LESSON YOU’VE LEARNT IN ALL THIS TIME? The biggest lesson is that there are no mistakes. Everything that happens in your life has a purpose. I noticed that when I wrote my book (Recipes For Life: My Memories) two years ago, and I spent time looking at my life, and I realised that the worst things that happened in my life were some of the best things that could have happened. Because they moved me out of the direction that I was determined to have, and in that movement of pushing me away, something wonderful would happen. And I look back and see how meaningful it was, for example, that my first husband left me for Bo Derek when she was 15. It was the best thing because I never would have done Dynasty if I’d stayed married to him, because he didn’t want me to work. You look back and you go, wow, the things that I thought were devastating were actually gifts for me to take me somewhere that I never would have gone.

I READ THAT YOU SAID YOU NEVER WANTED TO STOP LEARNING. It’s wisdom. If you learn from something even, like the bad dresses, you know never to do that again, you know. You do learn from your mistakes. I don’t mind making mistakes and I love to learn and I love to give wisdom. I think, at 70, that’s the best thing I have: All the wisdom of life.

IF THAT’S THE BEST THING, WHAT’S THE WORST THING? I’ve had a pretty extraordinary life. I have no complaints.

WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE YOUR LEGACY TO BE? I have a lot of years to live yet. When I was 40, I did a commercial for Clairol and I said 40 isn’t fatal. I want to go on, live to 80, 90, 100, and just say, come on, let’s just do it, baby, this is going to be great!

DO YOU GET ANNOYED BY PEOPLE WHO KEEP CALLING YOU KRYSTLE INSTEAD OF YOUR REAL NAME? Not at all. I’m flattered. I loved everything about playing Krystle. It’s so funny, because Joan has said to the press before things like, how boring it is to play Krystle and Alexis is exciting or whatever, but I have to tell you – I loved playing her. I loved who she was, what she thought, what her values were. I just thought she was great. That was my dream job and thank god it went for nine years and I got to do it. If people think I’m like her, I go, ‘Oh that’s very nice! Great!’

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO YOUNG ACTRESSES? I think I was fortunate lucky in that I never actually wanted a career. I never was invested emotionally on whether or not I got a part. It didn’t have anguish about not getting something. I just thought, Well, that’s not my part, I’ll do another one sometime. And not to be emotionally involved says a lot of heartache, because it’s not personal. I have gotten parts over women who were infinitely better actresses and more talented than I was, and there’s just no rhyme or reason why someone gets a part sometimes. You just have to learn to not take it personally. You love what you do and keep doing it. Don’t worry. Your career can turn around in a moment, it can turn on a dime.

IS THAT YOUR LIFE PHILOSOPHY? No, that’s not my life philosophy. I don’t know if I have one. I believe in being happy and being grateful. There are a lot of things to be grateful for. There are a lot of things that work. I try to avoid the things that don’t work and focus on the things that do.

Linda Evans appears on The ‘80s: The Decade That Made Us, daily from today until May 17 at 10pm on the National Geographic Channel (SingTel mio TV Ch 201 and StarHub TV Ch 411).