I'm making a fresh start. That's another reason for the name change from Lord Steven Regal to William Regal here in the WWF.
After having a career in Spain for eight years, I went back to being anonymous again, having to prove myself to the industry and myself, to prove I was capable of acting in a different language. It was a good challenge, and I can't complain.
I'm fascinated by people who have to reinvent themselves. I did it a few times - I was going to be a physicist before I was passionate about philosophy - and I realized that one more change, and I'm going to start looking like a dilettante.
I was in the family court for 25 years. And having started a second career, having a second act when you were 52 was something that I never thought would happen to me.
I've been able to reinvent myself and to keep an audience going at whatever age. This is terrific. I mean, how many actors get that chance?
When my pop career was over, I was scratching my head, thinking, "God, how am I going to do something after I'm forty?" I was in my mid-thirties, thinking I was on the scrap heap.
When I look at character artistes, they begin after 40. For instance, Boman Irani took up his first film after he was 40. Since I too, am in my 40s, I think I am finally getting to be in my zone.
Actors are always afraid of ending up like overcooked old soup over time. What's risky is that you don't realize this has happened, and you just get thick and boring. Going abroad was like getting a new pot to cook everything again. I was a rookie, a new self. And they were asking me, 'Who are you?'
Ultimately, I made my range wider because I wanted to suit each publication that I worked for. Talk about reinvention - I'm like the Madonna of photography.
I was in my 30s when I quit my job and ran for Congress. So often, we're told it's OK to take these big career leaps when we're in our 20s, but we cast such an unfavorable light on those who take big risks later on in their careers or when they start families. There's enormous pressure to have it all figured out.
If you start a new career at 40, you've still got another 35 years to go.
In a career, when you hit 40 and you've done a lot of this and that, you want to try some new things. I feel like that as a director, too, from one film to the other.
Peter Sellers constantly reinvented himself.
