Joan Collins Refuses to Call Dynasty’s Alexis Carrington a ‘Bitch’: She ‘Was a Big Go-Getter’ (Exclusive)

Joan Collins stands her ground when it comes to describing her character Dynasty.

Dynasty was the decade that defined the nighttime soap opera. The series, which ran on ABC from 1981 to 1989, chronicled the wealthy and warring Carrington and Colby clans of Denver. At the top were Blake and Krystle Carrington, played by John Forsythe and Linda Evans.

During its first season, however, it struggled with ratings. Enter Alexis Carrington Colby, played by Collins.

“My agent told me about the show,” Collins, now 90, tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue. “I’d never heard of it. I said, ‘What’s that? A Chinese restaurant?’ I was in Mallorca at the time. He said the first season was about to end and was lagging behind in the ratings. And they needed a character to spice it up.”

Collins read some scripts. “I thought, ‘This is great. And it’s going to be a, what, six, seven, eight week show?’

It would, of course, become an eight-year gig.

Heather Locklear, Pamela Bellwood, Linda Evans, John Forsythe, Joan Collins and Pamela Sue Martin in ‘Dynasty’.

ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content/Getty

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Alexis was the villain. The scenery-chewing, can’t-take-your-eyes-off-her character will define the series — and the fashion — as much as any other. The character was also referred to as a “bitch” many times. In fact, in a 1983 episode titled “The Threat,” the word was used for the first time in a primetime television series. (The fight between Evans and Collins in the lily pond is also shown.)

But Dynasty it was not the first time her name was associated with a pejorative term. While promoting the film in 1979, Collins looked up to see her name being pulled out by a plane.

“I was in Cannes, on a yacht with Kirk Douglas. A banner passed over the yacht: Joan Collins is Bitch” she recalls. “I said, ‘Oh, Kirk, I hate it. It should be Joan Collins as Bitch.’ And he said, ‘No, honey. Joan Collins is Bitch. That means you really nailed it like a star.'”

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Collins disagreed, she says. “But, you know, you don’t argue with Spartacus.”

Joan Collins on ‘Dynasty’.

ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment

Joan Collins on Dynasty The costar who kissed her ‘so hard’ she bled — and why she turned down the spinoff

Collins won’t like the word for years to come. And he certainly never found it amusing – or funny – to be called that.

“I think it’s a misogynistic word,” she explains. “I’ve never accepted that. It’s a catch-all word that I think is quite cruel.”

He also thinks it’s all too reductive to label Alexis a “bitch.”

“I happen to think that Alexis was a very vulnerable and sad person. Because Blake Carrington, who was the killer, drove her away from her children. You know?” she says. “We never hear about this, of course, because he’s a man. Do you think anyone ever mentioned it? Never, never once, in any article or anything. It was never mentioned that, maybe, Alexis Carrington became some bitch because of the way she was treated, when she was also extremely funny and had great, great lines of dialogue, and was a huge favorite in terms of what she accomplished. And if she’s stepping on some people to get it… Well, as well as many people in the business.”

She pauses. – They don’t call men bitches.

For more on Joan Collins, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE on newsstands Friday or subscribe here.

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