The 46-year-old Texan is appearing in Benchmark, a play about a Hollywood star who is reunited with her two ex-husbands on a Los Angeles park bench. Texas-born Hall, 46, performed in front of capacity audiences when she played Mrs Robinson in the West End production of The Graduate, but told BBC London's Entertainment Correspondent Brenda Emmanus she was happy to tread the boards in more humble surroundings.
Q. You've said you're fortunate to have choice as an actress. What made you choose this particular production? A. I read the play and immediately loved it, it's beautifully written. It's very funny and it's a very touching love story. I thought it was the greatest part and I'm loving the rehearsals. Q. You have done some major West End productions and now you're at this intimate 85-seater. What was it about playing here that attracted you? A. I'd never done a small theatre before and I just thought it was a luxury. When you're in a big 800-seater theatre you have to be so loud. Here you can do a lot more things with your voice, you can play around more. Q. You're accumulating theatre credits like some women accumulate lipstick. Are you enjoying this new lease of life? A. I'm loving it, I'm loving it so much - I'm really doing it for the doing it. Q. How much do the critics affect you? A. I never read the reviews. Sometimes toward the end I've read a few, and they actually are very helpful sometimes. But I'm afraid if I read them in the beginning, they might throw me off, and you have to really do what the director says, you have to trust them. Q. You seem to be in a really good space personally and emotionally A. Yes, I'm sort of getting by (laughs), working, my children are all well thank God, and I'm loving my degree. The degree was something I wanted to do always, I'm studying things that interest me in an organised way, and also I thought it might set a good idea for my children. I'm really thrilled because my 18-year-old daughter is going to do a University degree. Q. Do you feel you have things to prove, that you're fighting the press to get away from this 'blonde beauty' tag? A. No I don't. Everything's always a sort of game, and I'm sporting enough to go along with it. It's nice I've been able to get a lot of attention, raise a lot of funds for my charities, everyone is letting me play things that I absolutely love, so I don't feel any frustration about the whole thing. I don't feel I have to prove anything to anybody, I'm just doing what I absolutely like to do. Q. What about your relationship with Tim (Tim Attias, the millionaire banker Hall reportedly may marry), has that helped you? A. No comment. I just don't want to talk about it. Q. Do you ever get the itch to be modelling again or do you leave that to your daughter Elizabeth? A. I did the Yves St Laurent retrospect fashion show last year and it was fantastic...but I feel I've done that, and now my daughter's doing it. I think it's amazing they ask me to do it from time to time. I feel it's not really my career any more. Q. You've just finished touring with the play Picasso's Women, it must be a completely different experience to being in one place. A. It was wonderful, every week we were in a different theatre and went all over the country. I was doing a 52-minute monologue, that's a lot of lines to learn! It took a lot of concentration to pace it, to hold the audience. It was a fascinating experience. Q. Do you feel comfortable with the tag "actress" now? A. Yes, I know I certainly work for it. It's hard work with eight shows a week and rehearsing for weeks and weeks, eight hours a day. But I really enjoy it and feel I'm privileged to be able to do it. Q. Being in Hampstead, not too far from Richmond, you can have a balance between work, home life and study... A. Hampstead is a lovely area, beautiful. Q. You've got one film coming out next year. What would be your favourite role? A. I must say I'm not that ambitious, I personally enjoy the theatre better, but I know that film is what everybody wants to be in because you make more money and more people see it, and it lasts forever. As far as the pleasure it gives you, there's nothing like theatre - the instant gratification, the constant working on it, it's really rewarding. | 
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