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'I had a view of my body'

her right eye is brown and her left eye green - and seems to change the subject.

"A number of years ago I nearly died," she says, explaining that it all began with a simple case of bronchitis contracted while she was in Spain. "I was given an antibiotic. They missed and it went into the vein. I went into anaphylactic shock. Cortisone and adrenaline administered immediately is the only way you survive.

"I saw the white light," she recalls. "One minute I had a view of my body, and the next minute I was in my body and I couldn't control it. I left my body, and I remember even now that you take nothing with you except how you feel about what you left behind. What was I going to leave behind? I would have left behind children, people I loved and my work. Perhaps I would have left behind this idea that I made a difference.

"So when I was given the gift of coming back into my body, I vowed that I would not waste a single moment of my time," the actress says. "So, if you think that I'm a little bit busy, it's because I'm a great believer in putting my inspiration, my energy, my ideas out there."

It certainly seems to suit her. With her long, flowing chestnut hair, a gorgeous, cream-coloured dress and a ring with a diamond the size of a small boulder, she looks decades younger than her actual age.

"I became a painter 15 years ago," she says. "I have a full-time art career now. I've been shown in museums, I've gotten commissions. It's very exciting."

Back on the big screen

After years away from the big screen, Seymour has also been rebuilding her film career of late. Her fans were shocked and amused when she played the sexy mom who tries to seduce Owen Wilson in the smash-hit Wedding Crashers (2005), and now she's got a larger role in Blind Dating, a comedy directed by her husband, James Keach, and set to open on May 11.

The film revolves a blind man (Chris Pine) who has dangerous experimental surgery to restore his vision, then falls in love with an Indian woman (Anjali Jay) who is about to enter into an arranged marriage.

"I'm playing a crazy psychiatrist," Seymour says. "It's wonderful and funny in a different way from my past work, but it's very, very, very funny.

"It's sort of a cross between 'Bend It Like Beckham' (2002) and 'Four Weddings and a Funeral' (2004)," she says. "It's that type of thing, or like 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding' (2002) - it's made for less money, but it's a mainstream movie."

It's no accident that Seymour is back on the big screen, or that she's playing characters very different from the virginal frontierswoman she played on "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman" (1993-1998).

"I made a decision a few years ago that I would even audition again," she says, "because I wasn't getting the kind of roles that I really wanted to play. I felt the time had come to show people that I'm capable of a whole other genre of acting that they haven't given me the opportunity to do.

"I love comedy," Seymour says. "Few people know that I'm a natural comedian. I did comedy when I was younger, and in theater I've done a lot of comedy. I've worked with Danny DeVito and Chevy Chase. Even on 'Dr. Quinn,' the episodes where I got to be funny were my favourite moments of the entire series.

"The point is, in the last few years I've really wanted to show people that what they think of as Jane Seymour is not really Jane Seymour."

And if that means occasionally shocking the legions of "Dr. Quinn" fans, well, so be it.

"I'm thrilled when I hear howling laughter," Seymour says. "I'm not for even one second embarrassed by my decision to do a sexy scene like in 'Wedding Crashers,' although I did have a family meeting before I signed on to do the film."

'Lucky' with roles

Like many stars of hit television series, Seymour has struggled to overcome typecasting since the show went off the air, but the actress says that she has no complaints.

"I've been very lucky," she says. "I don't continue because of the money. I just love acting. I've done roles where they've barely paid me. In fact, I had an art show in the middle of making my last film, and I made three or four times as much from the art as I did from making the movie.

"It actually costs me to make some of these movies," she says. "I do the films for my soul."

The career freedom provided by the success of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman has been a life-changer for Seymour, who previously had starred in some popular films, including Live and Let Die (1973), Somewhere in Time (1980) and the miniseries War and Remembrance (1998), but had never been financially comfortable.

"I did a lot of television, over the years, because I had kids," she says, "and I did need the money when I was younger. The only reason that I ever did a series was because I was beyond broke, completely bankrupt. My husband had left me with nothing but lawsuits, and I had two kids to raise. So that's how 'Dr. Quinn' came about. My agent called every network and said, 'Jane will do anything.'

"And 'anything' turned out to be 'Dr. Quinn,"' Seymour says, laughing. "I was given less than 12 hours in which to decide and sign a five-year contract."

Born Joyce Penelope Wilhelmina Frankenberg, the future actress grew up in Middlesex, England, where her father was an obstetrician. She made her screen debut as a chorus girl in "Oh! What a Lovely War" (1969), and broke through when she was cast as Bond girl Solitaire in Live and Let Die. She never quite became a star, however, until Dr. Michaela Quinn stepped onto the prairie in 1993 and stayed for the next five years, plus television movies in 1999 and 2001.

Though she's currently focused on the big screen, Seymour hasn't forgotten television, and in recent years has completed a six-episode stint on Smallville (2004-2005), a starring role in the short-lived comedy Modern Men (2006) and guest appearances on How I Met Your Mother (2006) and In Case of Emergency (2007).

Looking ahead

"I'm always looking for good material," Seymour says. "I think that it's just a new phase in my life, and comedy is something that I just want to do more than anything."

She currently lives in St. Catherine's Court, a 14th-century English castle outside Bath, with Keach and their 12-year-old twin sons, John and Kristopher. Seymour also has two children with ex-husband David Flynn, 25-year-old Katherine and 20-year-old Sean.

"I can't believe that my daughter is an actress herself," Seymour says. "She's just starting out. Her name is Katie Flynn. She looks just like me, but with red hair."

She and Keach also worked together as producers of the hit film Walk the Line (2005), due to their long friendship with June Carter Cash and Johnny Cash, a four-time guest star on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. And then there's her art - as a celebrated portrait artist, she's had work in art shows across the country.

"I do everything," she says. "Watercolour, oils, pen-and-ink, pastels. I became a painter when I turned 40, and it really fulfills me."