Patsy Kensit recalls ‘erotic’ brush with David Bowie

Patsy Kensit has described a brief, wordless encounter with David Bowie while making Absolute Beginngers as the “most erotic moment” of her life.

Patsy Kensit has described a brief, wordless encounter with David Bowie as the “most erotic moment” of her life.

The 58-year-old actress – who was previously married to musicians Dan Donovan, Jim Kerr, Liam Gallagher and Jeremy Healy – was just 16 when she landed her breakthrough role as Crepe Suzette in 1986 movie Absolute Beginners and one of the highlights of the shoot was when the late rocker, who had a small but vital role as Vendice Partners, unexpectedly began brushing her hair when she was sitting in the make-up chair.

She told the Daily Telegraph newspaper: “I was sitting in make-up one day, and Bowie walked past me, and then popped back in and picked up a hairbrush, and brushed my hair, which was very long, for what seemed like ages without saying anything.

“It was the most erotic moment of my life to date, but not at all weird; it was beautiful.”

Patsy had secretly hoped that Bowie – who died of cancer in January 2016 aged 69 – would “fall in love” with her while shooting Absolute Beginners.

Recalling his first day on set, she admitted: “He was absolute heaven. I was obsessed with him, and had been since I was 13, so it was incredible to meet him.

“We all lined up in the corridor at Shepperton, as if he was royalty, and I was convincing myself that we were going to fall in love and live like we were in Hunky Dory – my favourite song at the time.

“And of course all he did was to shake my hand and say hello and moved on down the line.”

One person Patsy didn’t get on with during filming was director Julien Temple, but she thinks they would have had a different rapport if she had been older.

She said: “Julien, as the director, didn’t really get me, and I didn’t entirely get what he was trying to do back then. I was used to working on more conventional films, like the BBC adaptation of Silas Marner, and having months of rehearsals and working with great old character actors for whom the text was all-important.

“And I was thrust on to a soundstage, looking like a Bardot-esque waif, and I was experiencing a lot of things that the character was experiencing.

“So what I needed was a strong actors’ director, which Julien has certainly become now, but our relationship was a bit strained after it finished. If I’d been a few years older, it would have been a different relationship.”