AceShowbiz - Brigitte Bardot almost derailed a TV drama based on her life by writing a letter to the director expressing her distaste over the public's continued fascination with her.

The 88-year-old Hollywood veteran, who retired from acting in the 1970s, is the focus of a new TV series called "Bardot" which is directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Daniele Thompson, but the moviemaker has revealed a letter from her subject almost threw the whole project off course.

According to the Guardian newspaper, Thompson approached Bardot about the series five years ago and got a baffling letter in response. She explained, "[Bardot] answered with a very long letter, saying that she was always surprised how unbelievably interested people were in her and did not quite understand why she was not left alone for good."

"[I said] 'Oh my God, she's going to be very upset and she's going to make problems.' [It] was very much: 'I want to be left alone, I don't understand why the whole world is still talking about me, I've stopped working in movies years ago and I want to take care of my animal cause' – which is something, of course, that is very important for her now. It was actually a very negative first page."

However, once the director moved on to the second page of the letter she was given the green light to go ahead with the series. Thompson added that Bardot wrote, "as long as I know that it's going to be done anyway, I prefer that it's you who does it."

The director concluded, "I can't say that she was excited about it. Certainly not." The series stars Julia de Nunez as Bardot and charts her rise to fame as well as her relationships and struggles with life in the public eye.

Bardot did not have any involvement with the project but Thompson said she heard from different sources that the former screen star "liked" Julia's performance and "probably enjoyed some parts" of the series.