This is Later with Lee Matthews, The Lee Matthews Podcast more what You Hear
Weekday Afternoon's on the Drive. I've been a big fan of hers going back
to Live and Let Die, But you also know her as Doctor Quinn,
Medicine Woman, countless other roles like East of Eden, the Richest Man in
the World, the Kaminsky Method. Jane Seymour has a new creation out.
It's called Ruby's Choice, and she joins us. Now, Jane, not
everybody is wild about taking on this kind of subject matter. No, that's
true. But if you're over the age of seventy, I think the odds
of you having dementia Alzheimer's is like one in two. So it's very important
material. But this particular film is very entertaining. It will make you laugh,
it will make you cry, it will make you think. It will
tell you more about how you live with dementia and Alzheimer's and how this affects
the whole family, both in a positive and a negative way. And I'm
just incredibly proud of this movie. It's one of those little movies that you
read and you go, oh, I do hope this, you know,
comes out as well as it could, and you know, it's a miracle
that these movies even get made because they're not like huge blosso blocks. But
every screen I've been to and in Australia won lots of awards. It It's
something I'm so proud of and I really wanted to go there because I think
my greatest fear would be having Alzheimer's and dementia because of what it would do
to my family. That's always the fear, and I've seen it firsthand a
number of times in my own family. Not so much Alzheimer's, but the
dementia. Alzheimer's I think seems to be quicker in setting in than dementia.
But again, it's it's difficult to go into that world when you have to
act it. Yes, it is, but in a way also it isn't
because the person with dementia Alzheimer's lives in the past and they just can't.
They just can't relate to the currents, so they're searching for words. They
they get disconnected with what's happening because it's they get lost, they get lost
in the world. I mean, it's a wonderful thing to play as an
actress. I mean, it's got so much, so many layers. And
also I think it's interesting, you know, to be playing my age.
You know, so so many actresses. You know, I'm really concerned about
whether or not they have wrinkles and enough botox. And I went in the
other direction. I went, Okay, let's use this bag of tricks then
I've lived with for seventy three years, and see if I can emotionally connect
with the audience. And I think, you know, I have the privilege
of playing all different kinds of ages because of it. Ruby's choice is.
The film stars Jane Seymour, whom we are talking with right now. You're
a co star. Jacqueline Mackenzie plays your daughter, and you mentioned earlier how
it has a greater effect on the families than it does on the actual patient
itself. So Jacqueline had to play the daughter who's break heart is breaking because
she notices this in her mother. Yes, I mean, this is really
what happens. At first, you know, you notice, but you don't
want to believe it, and you don't know how to deal with it,
and you kind of just go, well, I mean they're just getting old.
Well, you know, we can take care of her. Well,
you know, it's no big deal, but you know, in Ruby's case,
right off the bat, she inadvertently leaves something on, you know,
in the kitchen and burns down the house. We also see that, you
know, she's constantly buying things off television. When they say, oh,
you must have this mop, Yes, she buys the mop and then you
know, she got fifteen of these mops. You know, something goes wrong
and she's calling up about her computer and there's somebody in India is trying to
talk her through how to fix her computer, and actually what she's doing is
looking at her microwave. So, I mean, it's so funny at the
same time, it's so sad because clearly this woman cannot live alone, and
of course she can't because right at the beginning we realize she's burnt down her
house, in every possession, everything that she ever owned. So now it's
how does the family live with someone with her that they love but who is
you know, potentially lethal at any moment without wanting to be. And we
see in the movie that, you know, they think she can just take
care of the the you know, the pet bird and the fish, and
of course they die and all kinds of other really sad things. But the
the what's beautiful about Ruby and Ruby's choice is that when when she does go
back into the past, she comes out with scenarios of things, secrets in
the family, things that the family didn't know had happened, And some of
them magical and some of them are so very disconcerting to the people who didn't
know, Especially that Jack and McKenzie character is my daughter, my granddaughter,
and I developed this amazing relationship because she has a quit school to look after
me, and I take her on this sort of magical mystery tour and she
finds a way to relate to her grandmother through music and dance and art.
And it's just, you know, everyone I know who's been affected by Alzheimer's
and dementia, whether as a caregiver or someone you know that was close to
them, or somebody who deals with this in you know, in a sort
of a proper nursing home setting, they've just said, this is spot on.
And the guy who wrote it worked in that world for thirty years,
so it is spot on. And when I watched it the other day in
the theater, I can't tell you how many people came up to me tears
in their eyes, and they just said, you have just helped me immeasurably
because now I know how to deal with the one that I love. I
now know when she says this or he says that, you know how to
handle it for myself and for them. And you know, I'm I'm very,
very excited that this movie's coming out today. Yeah, the things you
just described are things I've witnessed as well with a dear aunt of mine.
And it used to be taboo to even mention the word nursing facility or retirement
community. But there does come a time when the family has to decide for
the safety of the family and the safety of the loved one to do something
that is a little more full time than just one of the family members watching
the patient. And that's a difficult to see exactly. And I mean,
what's amazing here is Ruby is dead against it until she finally actually goes to
a home and then becomes Ruby's choice. They keep say no, no,
you don't have to, you don't have to, and she gives no,
no, it's nice here, my friend's here. She says, it's lovely,
and you realize that it is. This is where she's actually going to
be more comfortable because this is where she can live in the past, because
she's living with other people that are living in the past, and the present
is taken care of for her, so she will not you know, damage
herself or others. And you know, her quality of life is different from
the quality of life that we would wish for ourselves, or she would have
wished at a different time. It's a different kind of reality. Well,
they've made so many more strides in these facilities, understanding what needs to be
done, keeping their brains active, even with remedial things like playing tic tac
toh or making a clay model of something or painting a picture. And they
I think back to the almost insane asylum conditions that they were twenty thirty years
ago, and they're not bad anymore. Well, I mean, I think
again. You see in this movie, you see how when somebody plays,
when a granddaughter plays music from back in the day, she is up there
and dancing like she's so happy she's back there. She's twenty again. This
is her music, so dance music, art, you know, all these
kinds of things. You know, a walk on the beach, I mean,
whatever it is. It's about connecting to their past. They are not
in the present, they are in the past. It's Ruby's choice. Jane
Seymour love seeing you in anything you do. Jane, thank you for joining
us and we look forward to the movie. Thank you so much. Thanks
for listening to Later with Lee Matthews, the Lee Matthews Podcast, and remember
to listen to The Drive Live weekday afternoons from five to seven and iHeartMedia presentation