LOS ANGELES - DESPITE her reputation as one of Britain's leading serious stage and screen actresses, Vanessa Redgrave says she enjoys a laugh and will consider any role as long as it tells a good story.

'I've always been attracted to scripts that say something about society at any time in history. Which doesn't mean I can't enjoy acting in an action film like 'Mission Impossible' where I got to tease and taunt Tom Cruise,' said the British actress during a trip to Hollywood.

'Despite my reputation as being a serious actress, particularly on stage, and supporting several diverse causes off camera per see, I still always seek the entertainment value in projects that I choose to make.' The 71-year-old actress was in town to promote the two-hour, made-for-TV movie 'The Shell Seekers,' based on the novel by international best-selling British romance novelist Rosamunde Pilcher.

The discovery that one of her father's paintings is worth a small fortune causes shock-waves and fissures in the family, as their true characters are revealed.

The Hallmark Channel movie gets its US television debut on May 3 and is sure to earn strong Emmy considerations for Redgrave and director Piers Haggard, whose credits include the BBC production, 'Pennies From Heaven.' Redgrave is no stranger to awards ceremonies, having won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 1978 for her role in the World War II drama, 'Julia,' which marked Meryl Streep's film debut.

She has also been nominated five other times for an Academy Award and won a host of other awards, including twice winning best actress at the Cannes Film Festival - first for the 1966 movie 'Morgan, A suitable Case for Treatment,' and then for the 1969 film 'Isadora.' The common thread linking all her films, including Sydney Lumet's 'Murder On The Orient Express' and Michaelangelo Antonioni's classic 1960s look at swinging London, 'Blowup,' is a good storyline.

'I've learned from my parents, who were both actors, the value of a story worth telling. No actor is talented enough to save a script or play which is not well-written,' she tells AFP.

It's advice that Redgrave, daughter of actor Michael Redgrave and his wife Rachel Kemson, says she has sought to pass on to her own actress daughters Joely and Natasha Richardson.

And she says her famous siblings, Lynn and Corin Redgrave, have also sought to stop her committing any artistic mistakes.

'I'm grateful that my sister and my brother have reminded me in the past of my artistic aspirations when I was thinking of taking a role merely to pay my bills,' she said with a laugh.

The two-time Emmy winner clearly impressed her co-star, the late Richard Harris, when they filmed on the set of 'Camelot' together.

'It was a big studio musical, perhaps the last of its kind, and we were over budget and getting a lot of pressure from Jack Warner each day to hurry up and do better,' Harris said in an interview before his death in 2002.

'Vanessa used to take me in her arms, look me in the eye and tell me everything would be alright if we all did our job and created our own personal magic together.

'That simple advice and her comforting nature got me through the most difficult shoot of my career, for which I'll always be grateful to her!'