TO MILLIONS of her fans, and many others, she'll always be that stoic, decent Wild West heroine, Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman.

But now Jane Seymour, Queen of the TV movie, is about to shatter her wholesome, PG-rated image by playing a raunchy, boozy nymphomaniac - and going topless - in her latest movie.

And as far as the 54-year-old British-born actress is concerned, it's a role that's been a long time coming. Not so much for the shedding of clothes, perhaps, but for her surprisingly natural leaning towards comedy.

"I clearly had to change the mould," says Seymour, who's been stealing all the attention away from Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson, the ostensible stars of raucous Hollywood comedy Wedding Crashers, thanks to her jaw-droppingly racy scenes as a society lady with a penchant for Martinis and younger men.

The film is Seymour's first cinematic venture for the better part of two decades, and although she remains one of the biggest names in American TV, you can sense she's relishing her headline-grabbing return to big-screen success.

"A lot of casting people didn't think of me for lots of parts, because they just kept thinking of me in a prairie skirt with a stethoscope around my neck," she says, with disarming candour. "And so I chose to go out and try and audition for different projects."

One of those project was Wedding Crashers, this summer's lone feel-good comedy blockbuster in which Messrs Vaughn and Wilson play the eponymous loveable rogues who specialise in the role of uninvited guests to countless nuptials. One of the classiest weddings they crash is the Washington DC event of the year, as the father of the bride is the Treasury Secretary (Christopher Walken), whose wife is the bored and lascivious vixen played by Seymour.

In the scene that everybody is talking about, Seymour makes a play for Owen Wilson, drags him into her bedroom, takes off her blouse and barks an order at him that makes Mrs Robinson's seduction of Benjamin Braddock seem like child's play.

She admits that this is not an "obvious Jane Seymour" role - and that was probably half the attraction.

"I read it, I thought it was hysterical, I loved it - and said that there's no way I can do it," she recalls. "Then I read it again, and said, yes, this is hysterical, it's such a shame I can't do it. Then the third time, I said I've got to find a way to do it!"

She had no qualms about having to audition for the role. "I had to audition like crazy," says Seymour. "Oh yes, there was a great deal of competition for this role, and then once I got it, I said to the director, 'How are you going to shoot this?' and he told me, and I said, 'That's fine with me, I'll just be brave."

Ultimately, though, when the cameras rolled for the soon-to-be notorious bedroom scene, Seymour reckons it was Wilson, an actor 18 years her junior, who was the more apprehensive performer.

"I thought it was going to be me, but Owen was clearly very nervous, which was funny and very cute," she says. "He said that the idea of doing this with Dr Quinn was a little daunting."

Already Seymour has two more feature films lined up, and it looks like the small screen might have to wait for a return for one of its leading lights.

And both forthcoming ventures are comedies, clearly a new and exciting venture for an actress more strongly connected with earnest, po-faced mini-series from War and Remembrance to East of Eden.

©IC Wales