Dame Joan Collins recalls her past experiences with ‘Hollywood predators’ as she reveals the advice Marilyn Monroe gave her

Dame Joan Collins has opened up about her experiences with predators in the film industry and the advice Marilyn Monroe gave her.

The legendary actress, 90, appeared on Good Morning Britain on Tuesday to talk about her new memoir, Behind The Shoulder Pads – Tales I Tell My Friends.

She talked about how young actresses constantly faced predatory behavior from actors and producers, so much so that it became the norm.

Joan revealed that she received advice from famed actress Marilyn in 1955, after Joan was cast as Evelyn Nesbitt in The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing.

She recalled, “I was at Gene Kelly’s house, which was full of intellectual people, talking about things that were way over my head when I was only 21.

Tell-all: The legendary actress, 90, appeared on Good Morning Britain on Tuesday to talk about her new memoir, Behind The Shoulder Pads – Tales I Tell My Friends

Words of wisdom: Joan revealed that she received advice from famed actress Marilyn in 1955, after Joan was cast as Evelyn Nesbitt in The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing

“Marilyn was sitting at the bar, without makeup, drinking a martini. She said, “I hear you’re playing the part I should have played, but I was too old.”

Joan continued, “Then she said, ‘Beware of the wolves of Hollywood.’ I said, “Oh, I’ll deal with the wolves, we had them in the English film industry.”

Marilyn said, ‘Not the Hollywood sweetheart kind. If they don’t like you, they cancel your contract, that’s happened to a lot of young girls.’

“I said I’d just avoid them. I was good at avoiding them because my father was a cop and he said to me, “One of the best things you can do to avoid a predatory man is to laugh at him!”

Hosts Susanna Reid and Richard Madeley noted that there are still examples of this behavior in today’s film industry.

Joan replied, “Not to the same extent. Not in the industry, it was just taken as an act of divine right to sleep with his leading lady.

‘George Peppard, Richard Burton, Richard Todd. They just took it with them, because that’s meat to me. And if it wasn’t them, it was the producers. So I don’t think it’s that bad.’

She described an incident that occurred as a teenager when a producer made unwanted advances toward her.

Horrible: Joan recounted how young actresses continually faced predatory behavior from actors and producers, so much so that it became the norm (pictured in 1960)

Title: Joan said it used to be worse when actors Richard Burton (pictured with Joan in Sea Wife in 1857) saw it as a ‘divine right to sleep with his leading lady’

She explained: ‘That was in England with a producer and I was only seventeen. He chased me around the corner and said, “Do you really want this part?” and I said, “Really!”

‘Then he said, “Well, then you have to be nice to me.” That was their euphemism. So the closet people hid me in the closet while he sneaked down the hall to put me in his car. And one day he got me in his car.”

Joan added: “We were all together, it was the sisterhood of young Hollywood actresses. I was talking to an older actress about it.

“I said, ‘What do you do with all these men patting you on the cheek and saying these things?’

“And she said, ‘You just have to put up with it, because it’s part of the job.’ And we did that.’

Discussing the roles she would have liked to play in her career, Joan revealed that she was up for the role of Cleopatra in the 1963 film.

She said: ‘I would have loved to play Cleopatra. I tested it three times and once again I went through the predatory men, this time the CEOs and head honchos of 20th Century Fox.

“I tested it with all these terrible actors; to say they were made of wood would be unkind to trees.

“Then the whole budget went crazy, so they decided they couldn’t have me and decided to have the biggest star in the world, Elizabeth Taylor, and that was fine.”

Predators: She described an incident that occurred as a teenager when a producer made unwanted advances toward her (pictured in 1955)