Terence Stamp Interview, Canary 2000
Gracing the shelves of your local health food shop and selected supermarkets, the Stamp Collection’s shiny silver packaging stands out. And from each packet – be it cheese, wheat-free flour or pasta – the famous face of Terence Stamp grins out, a picture of health and youthfulness. At 61 Stamp has led many lives: actor, 1960s icon, traveller, writer and now, organic food guru. Stamp’s film career stretches from Billy Budd in the 1960s to The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert in the 1990s, but as he points out: ‘I’m now associated with food as much as recognised as an actor.’
Stamp attributes the success of The Stamp Collection, launched in 1994, to ‘being in the right place at the right time.’ He had insisted on the line of wheat- and dairy-free foodstuffs being organic ‘because that’s the future.’ The entire range is organic, with the exception of the vegetable chips – which will be going organic imminently, as a year-round supply of organic ingredients becomes available.
There is no doubt that interest in The Stamp Collection, as with organic produce in general, increased with the publicity surrounding GM foods. ‘What had happened to me in the 1960s – the realisation that my body was composed of what I put into it – started happening en masse, so there was this big interest in organics,’ he says. ‘And we were there, already up and running.’
Stamp’s profile also helped – as did his ‘coming out’ on a TV show about his food intolerances. The recent launch of the wheat-free loaf has been particularly satisfying for him. ‘My holy grail,’ he says. ‘I’ve never lost the craving for toast.’ It was towards the end of the 1960s that he discovered his intolerance to wheat and dairy products. ‘A terrible moment. Terrible,’ he recalls.
Meanwhile, he began travelling the world. ‘In the 1970s, I bought a round the world
ticket – first class,’ he chuckles, ‘and when I came back from that first trip, which lasted 18 months or so, I went to stay with friends who were converting a farm in Ibiza to an organic farm.’ The farm became his base. ‘Organic food is about sustaining the planet and protecting our children,’ he says – by way of explaining his passion for organic food.
Appropriately enough, The Stamp Collection itself came about in an organic way.
A friend introduced him to the Buxton family. (‘One of the few non-dysfunctional families I’ve ever met.’) It was over a meal that the idea for The Stamp Collection was born. ‘Elizabeth Buxton’s great skill as a businesswoman and a cook made it a reality,’ he remembers. ‘Although we did all the food development together, I would say it was 90 per cent her and 10 per cent me.’ He maintains that he never really contemplated success. ‘For me it was purely selfish, no altruism involved. It was just so that I could have delicious snacks like everybody else.’
Stamp is optimistic about the future of organic food, maintaining that demand will eventually outstrip supply and he hopes that the government will get more involved.
‘A lot of farmers do know the worth of organic food,’ he says. ‘There are such obvious repayments for going organic: the birds, bees and butterflies that they attract.’
His voice fades away as he thinks for a moment. ‘You know, I was in Tasmania recently, which is an almost totally organic island. There were curtains of butterflies…’
Terence Stamp was interviewed by Kamin Mohammadi