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This is Later with Lee Matthews,
The Lee Matthews Podcast more what You Hear

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Weekday Afternoon's on the Drive. I've
been a big fan of hers going back

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to Live and Let Die, But
you also know her as Doctor Quinn,

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Medicine Woman, countless other roles like
East of Eden, the Richest Man in

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the World, the Kaminsky Method.
Jane Seymour has a new creation out.

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It's called Ruby's Choice, and she
joins us. Now, Jane, not

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everybody is wild about taking on this
kind of subject matter. No, that's

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true. But if you're over the
age of seventy, I think the odds

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of you having dementia Alzheimer's is like
one in two. So it's very important

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material. But this particular film is
very entertaining. It will make you laugh,

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it will make you cry, it
will make you think. It will

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tell you more about how you live
with dementia and Alzheimer's and how this affects

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the whole family, both in a
positive and a negative way. And I'm

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just incredibly proud of this movie.
It's one of those little movies that you

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read and you go, oh,
I do hope this, you know,

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comes out as well as it could, and you know, it's a miracle

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that these movies even get made because
they're not like huge blosso blocks. But

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every screen I've been to and in
Australia won lots of awards. It It's

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something I'm so proud of and I
really wanted to go there because I think

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my greatest fear would be having Alzheimer's
and dementia because of what it would do

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to my family. That's always the
fear, and I've seen it firsthand a

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number of times in my own family. Not so much Alzheimer's, but the

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dementia. Alzheimer's I think seems to
be quicker in setting in than dementia.

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But again, it's it's difficult to
go into that world when you have to

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act it. Yes, it is, but in a way also it isn't

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because the person with dementia Alzheimer's lives
in the past and they just can't.

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They just can't relate to the currents, so they're searching for words. They

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they get disconnected with what's happening because
it's they get lost, they get lost

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in the world. I mean,
it's a wonderful thing to play as an

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actress. I mean, it's got
so much, so many layers. And

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also I think it's interesting, you
know, to be playing my age.

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You know, so so many actresses. You know, I'm really concerned about

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whether or not they have wrinkles and
enough botox. And I went in the

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other direction. I went, Okay, let's use this bag of tricks then

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I've lived with for seventy three years, and see if I can emotionally connect

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with the audience. And I think, you know, I have the privilege

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of playing all different kinds of ages
because of it. Ruby's choice is.

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The film stars Jane Seymour, whom
we are talking with right now. You're

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a co star. Jacqueline Mackenzie plays
your daughter, and you mentioned earlier how

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it has a greater effect on the
families than it does on the actual patient

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itself. So Jacqueline had to play
the daughter who's break heart is breaking because

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she notices this in her mother.
Yes, I mean, this is really

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what happens. At first, you
know, you notice, but you don't

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want to believe it, and you
don't know how to deal with it,

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and you kind of just go,
well, I mean they're just getting old.

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Well, you know, we can
take care of her. Well,

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you know, it's no big deal, but you know, in Ruby's case,

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right off the bat, she inadvertently
leaves something on, you know,

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in the kitchen and burns down the
house. We also see that, you

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know, she's constantly buying things off
television. When they say, oh,

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you must have this mop, Yes, she buys the mop and then you

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know, she got fifteen of these
mops. You know, something goes wrong

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and she's calling up about her computer
and there's somebody in India is trying to

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talk her through how to fix her
computer, and actually what she's doing is

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looking at her microwave. So,
I mean, it's so funny at the

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same time, it's so sad because
clearly this woman cannot live alone, and

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of course she can't because right at
the beginning we realize she's burnt down her

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house, in every possession, everything
that she ever owned. So now it's

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how does the family live with someone
with her that they love but who is

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you know, potentially lethal at any
moment without wanting to be. And we

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see in the movie that, you
know, they think she can just take

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care of the the you know,
the pet bird and the fish, and

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of course they die and all kinds
of other really sad things. But the

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the what's beautiful about Ruby and Ruby's
choice is that when when she does go

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back into the past, she comes
out with scenarios of things, secrets in

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the family, things that the family
didn't know had happened, And some of

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them magical and some of them are
so very disconcerting to the people who didn't

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know, Especially that Jack and McKenzie
character is my daughter, my granddaughter,

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and I developed this amazing relationship because
she has a quit school to look after

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me, and I take her on
this sort of magical mystery tour and she

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finds a way to relate to her
grandmother through music and dance and art.

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And it's just, you know,
everyone I know who's been affected by Alzheimer's

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and dementia, whether as a caregiver
or someone you know that was close to

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them, or somebody who deals with
this in you know, in a sort

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of a proper nursing home setting,
they've just said, this is spot on.

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And the guy who wrote it worked
in that world for thirty years,

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so it is spot on. And
when I watched it the other day in

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the theater, I can't tell you
how many people came up to me tears

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in their eyes, and they just
said, you have just helped me immeasurably

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because now I know how to deal
with the one that I love. I

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now know when she says this or
he says that, you know how to

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handle it for myself and for them. And you know, I'm I'm very,

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very excited that this movie's coming out
today. Yeah, the things you

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just described are things I've witnessed as
well with a dear aunt of mine.

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And it used to be taboo to
even mention the word nursing facility or retirement

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community. But there does come a
time when the family has to decide for

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the safety of the family and the
safety of the loved one to do something

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that is a little more full time
than just one of the family members watching

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the patient. And that's a difficult
to see exactly. And I mean,

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what's amazing here is Ruby is dead
against it until she finally actually goes to

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a home and then becomes Ruby's choice. They keep say no, no,

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you don't have to, you don't
have to, and she gives no,

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no, it's nice here, my
friend's here. She says, it's lovely,

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and you realize that it is.
This is where she's actually going to

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be more comfortable because this is where
she can live in the past, because

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she's living with other people that are
living in the past, and the present

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is taken care of for her,
so she will not you know, damage

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herself or others. And you know, her quality of life is different from

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the quality of life that we would
wish for ourselves, or she would have

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wished at a different time. It's
a different kind of reality. Well,

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they've made so many more strides in
these facilities, understanding what needs to be

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done, keeping their brains active,
even with remedial things like playing tic tac

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toh or making a clay model of
something or painting a picture. And they

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I think back to the almost insane
asylum conditions that they were twenty thirty years

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ago, and they're not bad anymore. Well, I mean, I think

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again. You see in this movie, you see how when somebody plays,

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when a granddaughter plays music from back
in the day, she is up there

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and dancing like she's so happy she's
back there. She's twenty again. This

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is her music, so dance music, art, you know, all these

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kinds of things. You know,
a walk on the beach, I mean,

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whatever it is. It's about connecting
to their past. They are not

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in the present, they are in
the past. It's Ruby's choice. Jane

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Seymour love seeing you in anything you
do. Jane, thank you for joining

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us and we look forward to the
movie. Thank you so much. Thanks

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for listening to Later with Lee Matthews, the Lee Matthews Podcast, and remember

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to listen to The Drive Live weekday
afternoons from five to seven and iHeartMedia presentation