Kate Jackson

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Kate Jackson “Jazzed” About Acting After Rare Public Reunion

Since getting together with fellow Charlie’s Angels actresses Jaclyn Smith and Cheryl Ladd at PaleyFest on April 6, Kate Jackson has been flooded with calls. The 77-year-old actress discloses to PEOPLE that the response that swamped her kept her ‘pretty jazzed’ about the idea of acting again after a very long break.

Before the 50th-anniversary party, Jackson has barely appeared in the media since the 2006 Emmys. She said that she was very scared before the event because it had been twenty years since her last public appearance of such scale.

Nevertheless, after going on the stage, Jackson says her natural instincts came through. “You are going to walk on the stage, and the ‘you’ that is the ‘you’ that is built in is going to show up, ” she remembered being told. “That is exactly what happened. We had a great time.”

Kate Jackson Knew ‘Charlie’s Angels’ Would Change Her Life Forever

Though she withdrew from the spotlight some 20 years ago, Kate Jackson has been a household name ever since Charlie’s Angels was first aired on ABC in 1976. The 77-year-old actress can even pinpoint the exact occasion when she felt the show was going to be a big hit, it was while watching the first episode in a tiny motel room in Sopchoppy, Florida.

Jackson was at that point shooting a Roger Corman film and the show was played on a grainy, black-and-white TV with rabbit ears. What she saw had an instant and deep effect on her.

“I just sat there for a while, then I got up and paced a little, ” Jackson recalls. Her date, who was with her then, shared that after a few moments of being silent she said, “My life is changed forever, ” as the enormity of the show’s potential started to overwhelm her.

Kate Jackson Recalls the “Mind-Blowing” Success of ‘Charlie’s Angels’

Kate Jackson checked the ratings the next day after seeing the Charlie’s Angels pilot and was told by her agent that they had “gone through the roof”. She mentions, however, that she was pretty sure this would be the case. In fact, the whole thing is a “mind-blowing” kind of positive thing that definitely changes one’s life forever.

Nonetheless, from the cast’s perspective, the massive success of the show did not immediately register. Jackson shares that because of their extremely demanding production schedule, she and her fellow actresses were pretty much cut off from the public’s reaction during the first season.

“We started shooting well before dawn and the sun would have set by the time we got home, ” she states. As their day ended, the only concern was to memorize the lines for tomorrow and get enough rest so as to be able to go through the whole process once again.

Kate Jackson Talks About the Struggle for Privacy After Becoming World-famous

“On Saturdays and Sundays, Kate Jackson explains that she and her fellow actors needed to ‘sleep the whole day’ to recover from the brutally tight work schedule. Therefore, they were almost totally out of touch with the show’s enormous impact on the culture.” Only at the end of shooting Jackson understood that “suddenly wherever you go people are looking at you.”

Talking about the huge change to public attention which is constant and almost overwhelming, Jackson confessed that very often she would think something was wrong before she fully understood that she was a celebrity.

It was during the show’s peak that a trip to New York City became a real eye-opener to the extent of her fame. Jackson and a friend, on a break from filming The $25, 000 Pyramid, strolled down Fifth Avenue. Then as a sort of game, they decided to see how people would react to them. When they turned round at a street corner in the end, they found that everyone they had passed had come to a standstill and was staring at them.

On the one hand, Jackson was gaining more and more of a picture of professional success as she stayed leading in Scarecrow and Mrs. King, on the other hand, her taste for a quieter existence also grew. “To have your privacy simply vanish is extremely hard, particularly when you have always been a private person, ” she said. This marked the beginning of her leaving the Hollywood scene.

Kate Jackson Put Motherhood and Health First, Turned Down the Hollywood Spotlight

Kate Jackson was diagnosed with breast cancer right during the last season of Scarecrow and Mrs. King. Two years later when the cancer came back spot treatment, partial mastectomy and reconstruction were the surgeries she needed. She says her recovery is mainly due to a “fiercely positive attitude” because deep down she was really healing herself in that quiet beach house, where she could get her daily walk and sit peacefully by the ocean.

That same year, 1995, Jackson made the decision to adopt a little boy, Charles. Motherhood became the biggest change in her life. Stepping away from acting and directing are just the things she did after that. She could not have the two very different lifestyles of a director or actor and at the same time the kind of parent that one generally wants to be. She said, “Really my rule is if I’m not a good mom then nothing else I do will come close to matter.”

Loving her family more than a career, Jackson just decided to get out of show business. She didn’t take new jobs and after a few years, she had stopped getting offers too. Yet Jackson is quite content. She even says that her life “became busy and full” when she took on the role of a mother and loved it so much that on not a single day was her son left out of her thoughts.

Kate Jackson Settles Down on 128-acre Virginia Farm for a “Peaceful” Life

As a matter of fact, Kate Jackson lately has left Hollywood’s red carpets for a 128-acre farm situated at the foothills of Virginia. The actress states that she cherishes the tranquility of her Home base where she has horses, chickens, and she also enjoys the woods around. “The place is very beautiful and quiet and peaceful, ” Jackson describes her country escape. “It is a really great place for me.”

Although the slowdown in physical activity is temporary due to the injury, Jackson’s upbeat attitude is contagious. The actress is well and already here up next winter outing plans, albeit with a bit of caution. “Maybe now snowshoeing is going to be something I do, ” she chuckled.

Kate Jackson Reflects on Hollywood While Loving Her Quiet Life in Virginia

Kate Jackson has revealed that she is quite willing to go back to Hollywood and she is in California now looking for acting or directing work. “Directing was very enjoyable for me. I am quite capable at it, ” she said, admitting that she kept her SAG and DGA memberships as she always thought that one day she might come back.

Besides, the actress said her urges to create have never been completely dormant and that she often felt her career coming back to her. “The creative people have to be creative, ” she reminded herself with the question of whether to keep her comeback option open.

Meanwhile, Jackson is savoring the incredible excitement of the fans with whom she met at the Charlie’s Angels reunion at PaleyFest. She was very thankful and felt the show’s success was because of its fans and she doesn’t take their appreciation for granted.