Sorry, Christian Grey: In Jackie Collins's Novels, It's the Guys Getting Handcuffed

Romance author Jackie Collins has passed away at 77 following a battle with breast cancer. Below is an interview we had with her this Summer.

I read my first Jackie Collins novel back in high school. My friends and I used to steal them from our mothers' bookshelves and then sneak them inside our textbooks so we could read them in between classes. (OK, I'll admit it, sometimes we read the books during class, too.)

Now Jackie's back with her latest book, The Santangelos, and it does not disappoint — I absolutely loved it. I got the chance to talk to Jackie about the book, what she thinks of Fifty Shades of Grey, and who she thinks should play her iconic characters in the movie version of the book.

Brenda Janowitz: I told your publicist that when I spoke to you, I might faint, so if the line goes dead . . .

Jackie Collins: That's because I taught you everything you know about sex.

BJ: [Laughing.] Pretty much.

JC: I was the first person writing about blow jobs.

BJ: [Uncontrollable laughter.]

[YOU GUYS, JACKIE COLLINS SPEAKS THE TRUTH.]

BJ: I loved the book — I love how you can come into The Santangelos without any knowledge of the previous books. But, if you do know the epic tale of the Santangelos, there are little easter eggs in store for you, like where you mention that Gino always thought Sandra Bullock looked like Maria (Lucky's mother and the love of his life).

JC: Sandra Bullock played Maria in the Lucky/Chances miniseries.

BJ: So, tell us what the book is about.

JC: It's the epic story of the Santangelo family, which is headed by Gino, who is very old. Something terrible happens to him and so Lucky, who always has to save the day — she's a strong and incredible woman — steps in. Meanwhile, her son Bobby gets arrested for a murder he didn't commit, while her daughter, Max, is in Europe, becoming the It girl of the moment, being chased by a gorgeous movie star. It's also the story of a drug runner, called Alejandro, and his Lindsay Lohan-type girlfriend, Willow, who is determined to do anything to get her career on track.

BJ: What do you think of Fifty Shades of Grey?

JC: It's nothing new, that's the thing. I mean, way back, there were books like Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn. And all those books that went into bondage, so it's really nothing new. But people seem to be getting excited about it. Quite frankly, my heroines kick ass, they don't get their asses kicked.

BJ: Love that!

JC: In my books, if anyone is going to get handcuffed, it's going to be the guy.

BJ: That's great.

JC: But it gets people reading, and that's a good thing.

BJ: How has the market changed since you wrote your first book? I noticed that some of your ebooks are now self-published.

JC: I'm so thrilled I got to keep the erights to my books.

BJ: Did someone get fired over that?

JC: No! I've been writing for so long that when I looked back at my contracts, they didn't have erights then. Erights have only been in contracts for the last 10 years, and I've been writing forever. I love the fact that people can get books at a great price, too.

[HOW KICK*SS IS JACKIE COLLINS?! In addition to writing steamy novels, she's also an amazing businesswoman!]

BJ: Tell me the best thing anyone's ever said about your books?

JC: I love what Louis Malle (he was a great French film director, he was married to Candice Bergen when we were making the miniseries, Hollywood Wives) said when he sidled up to me on the set one day. He said: "Miss Coll-eens, you are a raunchy moralist." And I thought it was so great! The books are very raunchy, but the bad guys always get their comeuppance in the end.

BJ: Which is what's so satisfying.

JC: Yes. And I love bringing new characters into books.

BJ: I love that, too. I also love how they are sometimes related to old characters. That's what's so much fun about reading all of the books together, in any order.

JC: In this one, I mention a few characters from other books, like Nick Angel, from American Star. People love Nick Angel. They're always writing to me, saying: bring Nick Angel back! But I really have so many characters to write about. Right now, I'm writing a sequel to The Power Trip. It's about these very affluent people who get on a yacht in Cabo San Lucas and it gets pirated by Somali pirates. You'll fall in love with Flynn. He's my hero.

BJ: I asked you the best thing anyone's ever said about your books. Now I have to ask: what's the worst thing anyone's ever said about your books?

JC: When I published my first book, The World Is Full of Married Men, some MP [Member of Parliament] in England — who was in the closet at the time — came out with this headline in the Sunday supplement paper and it said: "This is the most shocking book I have ever read." Meanwhile, I went on a television show the next day and Barbara Cartland, who was a famous English writer, who looked just like the Queen Mother, said to me: "Miss Collins, you are responsible for all the perverts in England." And I said: "Oh, thank you!"

I want to encourage people. Because if I listened to my critics when I wrote The World Is Full of Married Men, which was 32 books ago, I would never have written another word. So, don't listen to your critics. You don't care if they're good or bad, or whatever. F*ck it. I write for myself.

BJ: And for all of us!

JC: Yes. For the people who appreciate what I do.

BJ: Who would you cast in the movie version of The Santangelos?

JC: I love Angelina Jolie. She is so incredible. There's also Angie Harmon — she'd make a great Lucky. For Max, someone like Cara Delevingne. She'd be fabulous. Or maybe Zoë Kravitz. She would be a great Max.

BJ: Get to Bobby.

JC: [Laughing] Yes, Bobby. Bobby would be Taylor Kinney. He's gorgeous. And he's a really good actor.

BJ: How did you come up with the characters of Lucky and Gino Santangelo?

JC: I had this girlfriend when I first came to LA when I was just a teenager. She had this blistery boyfriend, and they broke up, and so she said: "You've got a car. Can we go and get my television back from his house?"

We drove up to Bel Air and I was expecting a little house, and instead, there was this huge mansion. So, I go: "Oh shit, what am I gonna do?!" But we drove up the driveway and we opened the window to the room where her television was, and of course, guards come running, alarms go off, dogs come running. It turns out, this guy was the son of a big Mafia guy in New York. His name was Slim.

Slim took a liking to me — in a very platonic way — and he became my Godfather. And he was fantastic. I based Gino on Slim.

And then I wanted to bring in a really strong woman. I thought: all my life, I've read books where women were there for the cooking or just sex, these books where the hero would just look at a woman and she'd have an orgasm. That's not what it's all about. I thought: I'm just going to create this woman who can do anything, and is also wildly beautiful and very smart, and can just turn it around whenever she wants to. She was way before her time. People were not writing strong women then. (This was the '80s.) And Lucky was born!

She does all the things women would like to do, but don't have the courage to do it. She does it for them.

BJ: And she says it for them.

JC: Don't f*ck with a Santangelo!

[I WOULD NEVER.]