Opening up about one of her pet hates, Joanna Lumley has declared she has no time for “indifference” in humanity.
Joanna Lumley has no time for “indifference” in humanity.
The 78-year-old actress and activist is best known for her role as drink and drug-fuelled Patsy Stone in ‘Absolutely Fabulous’, and like her character she is straight-talking when it comes to tackling what she views as ignorance in the world.
She said in an interview with the Daily Telegraph about her pet hate: “People who couldn’t care less. They honestly don’t care whether animals suffer or not. They don’t care if people suffer or not. They don’t care about faraway people – ‘Who cares about them?’
“People who can’t be fagged to put the paper in the bin, or to clear up after themselves.
“Or to rinse the cup out and put it on the side. People who can’t be bothered. Indifference is the greatest enemy to all the energetic avenues of life. You can’t have people like that around you. They drain you.”
Born in Srinagar, India, in 1946, Joanna’s life has been as varied as it has been public.
Her father, a British Army major, had postings across the globe, and Lumley was educated in boarding schools back in England.
A former model and actress, her career spanned iconic roles, including the villainous Blofeld’s Angel of Death in James Bond film ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’.
But it is her work off-screen, advocating for numerous charities that defines much of her public life today.
She said she “can’t stand” any kind of “cruelty to creatures that can’t answer for themselves, animals, either in captivity or the wild or used for experiments”.
The Telegraph profile in the actress revealed Joanna is deeply involved with nearly 50 charities, including those supporting animal welfare, children and the environment.
She’s particularly vocal about factory farming, which she condemns for its inhumane treatment of animals.
Referring to the conditions of factory-farmed pigs and poultry, she said: “It’s just false light to make them grow quicker. Millions and millions – billions – of creatures are kept in cages or kept in vast dreadful barns where they’re just so crumpled in.”
Joanna Lumley has no time for ‘indifference’ in humanity
