No one took stardom to these heights. Brigitte Bardot. Her very name is inspirational. But nowadays the former French screen siren “doesn’t want to seduce anyone or anything” according to a Vogue Hommes interview which came out this Thursday. Referring to her past as an actor, Brigitte Bardot–“BB” as she’s known to the French–who celebrates her 78th birthday at the end of this month, said she had thought herself ugly then. “I tried to make myself the most beautiful possible and even so, I was ugly,” she explained. “I had a hard time showing myself out there. I was afraid of not being up to expectations. Today, at my age, I do not give a toss,” she added.

Bardot, who started her acting career in the fifties, appeared in a number of films before landing a marquee role in the much talked-about 1956 film “And God Created Woman.” The shy ingenue was anointed silver-screen bombshell. She also was one of those rare French actors to have appeared in a number of English-language movies, appearing opposite Sean Connery and Anthony Perkins, among others.

The former model and face of Marianne (France’s approximate answer to our Lady Liberty) “is now aspiring to solitude. I am of a contemplative nature, so this suits me very well. The world as it is today does not please me. If it were different, I might not live the cloistered life.”

Drawing on her past experiences she told Vogue Hommes that she had literally been overwhelmed by fame back in the heyday of her film career. “Nobody can imagine how terrible it is. It’s an ordeal. I could not live like this anymore,” she described.

Available now on Facebook: a gallery of Brigitte Bardot movie posters

Asked about her daily life Bardot, who refuses to undergo surgery for a damaged hip, said she has trouble walking and swimming because of it. She noted that, “when I see the way some animals are treated all of sudden I don’t feel so bad about myself anymore, it gives me a huge boost.”

Bardot, France’s most ardent celebrity animal-rights activist, runs an animal rights foundation and shelter.

In her usual non-sensical way she told the Vogue interviewer, “I’ve always done what I liked (…). I know that I have more balls than many men. They could learn a lesson from me. I’ve always taken responsibility for what I did or said.” What seduces her nowadays? “Small miracles like the blossoming of a flower, a bee’s dance, the vastness of the sea, and, obviously, animals, because of their pureness, their courage and their loyalty.”

No mention of Bardot would be complete without mentioning the fact that she has been a long-time supporter of France’s extreme-right party, having publicly decried France’s immigration policies, singled out specific groups and publishing opinion pieces and books about her views.