Diana Rigg Quotes

Karen Andersen was a private investigator with a healthy dose of imagination. So when her phone went off while carrying out a pretend parry riposte, in her mind she was Diana Rigg from the Avengers.

When DC Comics was trying to figure out how to retool Wonder Woman’s image to make her cooler, they looked at another Diana—Diana Rigg. Rigg had caused a stir as Mrs. Emma Peel when the British TV series The Avengers was imported to the US in 1966. Mrs. Peel defined the heroine of the mod ’60s—brilliant as she was beautiful, witty, champion fencer, martial arts ex-pert, modern artist, crack shot with a pistol, and fearless secret agent. Attired in sleek black leather catsuits or mod body stockings, Emma Peel was a true force to be reckoned with, combining beauty, brains, and power.

One day, the actress Dana Hill, my dear friend, bought me the book No Turn Unstoned, by Diana Rigg. It is a compilation of actors’, playwrights’, sets’, and costumes’ worst reviews. It has terrible reviews of award-winning actors ranging from Sarah Bernhardt to Lord Laurence Olivier. I pored over the pages, comforted to know at least I was in good company. This experience taught me something about myself, though—an even better lesson. I realized I had stored up and placed downstage, front and center, all the negative reviews I’d ever received in my life, while I’d pushed the positives upstage, hidden behind the scenery. Eventually I would have to find my way out from behind the backdrop.