The Hollywood Reporter described it as a “a stirring picture of a gifted storyteller and a brilliant female entrepreneur” and The Atlantic as “piercing” and “snappy.”
LADY BOSS: The Jackie Collins Story, directed by Laura Fairrie and produced by John Battsek and Lizzie Gillett, is a Passion Pictures production for AGC Studios, CNN Films, and BBC Arts, in association with Ventureland.
Fairrie crafts the intimate narrative of her film with family photographs, home movie footage, audio recordings of Collins’ novels, and even excerpts from Collins’ personal diaries. Decades before ‘meToo,’ Collins talked of experiencing Hollywood’s ‘casting couch.’ Years later, Collins mined the not-all-that-glitters-is-gold world that she would come to dominate, fictionalizing many of the true tales of her Hollywood experiences for her novels. Her legions of fans, many of whom learned about sex from reading her books, may relate to the novelist’s real-life loves, her early difficult marriage to Wallace Austin, and a later union with the love of her life, Oscar Lerman, who admiringly encouraged her career. Years after Lerman’s passing, Collins declared she had entered a phase enjoying the company of ‘a man for every occasion.’
The film spans Collins’ life, beginning with a domineering father and a beloved, but sometimes distant mother. Fairrie follows Collins through her final days, including a determined return to London for a farewell to her beloved siblings, actress Joan and Bill, her sister-in-law, Hazel, and her close circle of business confidants. During that London visit, most did not realize Collins was in her final days of breast cancer, and had secretly lived with the devastating disease for six years. Along the way, Fairrie interweaves interviews with Collins’ cherished daughters Tiffany, Tracy, and Rory, and dearest friends, to yield a sometimes surprisingly vulnerable portrait of a relatable and complex woman, behind the fan-craved chronicles of Hollywood scandals and sex.
Fairrie’s immersive documentary is a multilayered deliberation on feminism, sexuality, and family dynamics. Viewers journey through the life of a novelist who blazed a revolutionary path, earning power and respect at the top echelons of Hollywood, and whose ‘Girls can do anything’ motto continues to inspire generations of readers.
More than half a billion copies of Collins’ 32 novels have sold in more than 40 countries; eight of her books were produced as popular movies. Her novels including Chances (1981), Hollywood Wives (1983), and The Santangelos (2015) continue to delight readers around the world, creating community among her fans, and generating debate among others over her self-styled brand of feminism.
