Donna Mills Reflects on Her Role in ‘V.C. Andrews’ Dawn’ and Her Current Fitness Regimen

Don’t be surprised if, while you’re watching Lifetime’s new scary series, V.C. Andrews’ Dawn, you find yourself staring at the scene-stealing Donna Mills – she looks that good!

“I just keep doing it, I don’t stop!” the glamorous 82-year-old tells Closer in an exclusive interview. “I work out almost every day and play a lot of tennis — I keep it moving! And I think the fact that I started out as a dancer, and I know my body pretty well, it really makes a big difference that you make yourself do that.”

Fans who loved seeing Donna play the deliciously conniving Abby on CBS’ Knots Landing, will find her portrayal of the grandma in Dawn to be much more evil!

“Many friends when I told them I was doing a V.C. Andrews project said, ‘Oh my God, those are the best books ever! I read them when I was a teenager!’” the actress adds. “Once I knew I got this role, I immediately started to read them. She was a wonderful writer, and the ghostwriter who took over for her after she died, Andrew Neiderman, is great too. It’s been a really good series to do as movies because the storytelling is so good.”

While another television legend, Fran Drescher also costars in the Lifetime series, Donna has yet to meet her.

“I was very disappointed that I never even got to meet her because we weren’t in the same scenes together and never worked on the same day,” she says. “I was back and forth from Vancouver a couple of times shooting what I was doing. And she shot all her stuff in a couple of days. I like her a lot! I hope that at a premiere or something, I’ll get to say hi.”