Why Joan Collins is perfect to play Wallis Simpson in new biopic - Royal historian Dame Joan Collins will be playing famous royal Wallis Simpson in The Bitter End - a new biopic portraying the controversial Duchess of Windsor’s final years.
Of the film, which came out the year Edward died, Tessa says: “It captures that claustrophobic formality which Edward professed to loathe about royal life - and how besotted he became with Wallis.
"This film was more favourable to Wallis than more recent depictions, because in the eighties and nineties, the Royal Family was seen as a bit of a mess with the Queen's children getting divorced - hence this softer view of Wallis.
Tessa believes this is the most accurate portrayal of the divorcee, saying: "She's flirtatious, straight talking and ambitious, which is exactly who Wallis was - but also quite vulnerable to Edward's insistence she leaves her second husband Ernest Simpson.
Bonnie and Clyde star Faye Dunaway played Wallis, opposite Thorn Birds actor Richard Chamberlain as Edward, in the TV film, charting the beginning of the royal romance.
