Why are older men still seen as desirable, but not older women? Andie MacDowell says it’s time we change that.
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The Ready or Not actress spoke to People at the Cannes Film Festival about double standards when it comes to aging.
“Men are seen as really sexy when they start to get wrinkles,” she said. “I like all the terms we use for older men. I want to hold onto those terms. I want to be debonair. Why not? What a beautiful term.”
She continued, “We’ve been brainwashed, and it’s a psychological thing that we’ve bought into because we’ve been fed it for so long,” she says. “We don’t allow ourselves to feel good about ourselves and we even perceive [older men] as sexy, because we’ve been taught this.”
Andie MacDowell Says She Loves “Being An Older Woman”
At 65, the Four Weddings and a Funeral star is choosing to flip the script by embracing her age. However, she admits that this wasn’t always the case, especially when she hit middle age.
“There is this time period between 40 and 60 that I think women in the business can struggle because they don’t know what to do. They’ve been seen as one way, but they’re not really seen as what I am now,” she said. “I was struggling and I’m much more comfortable with where I am right now. I love being an older woman. I really enjoy it. And it doesn’t feel less sexy.”
MacDowell believes that her newfound confidence translates to the screen, especially when she’s playing “complex older woman roles.”
“I feel like my career is actually doing really well right now because I’ve dove into being an older woman and accepted it,” the actress said.
She continued, “I don’t need to pretend that I’m young anymore because I’m not young, obviously. And I just think that’s going to help me and you have to dig in and make your characters more complex, too. You have to struggle and fight with people to make them. You have to fight for what you know. I fight for what I know as an older woman, what I know to be true.”
Recently, the actress has been captivating audiences as a grandmother with a complicated family dynamic in Hallmark’s The Way Home, which is set to return for a second season.