“I don’t want to hide from it as if it’s a bad thing,” Jamie Lee Curtis said about aging.
Women are targeted by a plethora of products that promise to "turn back the clock" or, even to stop the clock before the indications of aging appear. Early on, people learn to be afraid of seeing gray hairs or wrinkles when they look in the mirror. These goods frequently feature youthful actors or models in their advertising who have skin that is astonishingly beautiful and shining. In an industry where physical appearance—particularly youth—often determines beauty, one actress is speaking out.
Jamie Lee Curtis discussed reevaluating how we talk about aging at the Radically Reframing Aging Summit earlier this year, which was organized by Maria Shriver. “This word ‘anti-aging' has to be struck,” Curtis said. “I am pro-aging. I want to age with intelligence and grace and dignity and verve and energy.” The actor emphasized, “I don’t want to hide from it as if it’s a bad thing.”
The week-long online event, which described itself as a "free workshop in aging well," attempted to offer "a new outlook" on aging. Various experts, including doctors, authors, sociologists, and celebrities like Goldie Hawn and William Shatner, spoke at the summit. The summit addressed the question, “People are living longer, fuller lives than ever before. So why is our society so behind in its attitudes about aging?”
The performer was open in her talk with Curtis about how she has accepted her aging figure. She suggests that one option is to stop staring at the mirror so much. “I’m not denying what I look like, of course, I’ve seen what I look like,” Curtis shared. “I am trying to live in acceptance. If I look in the mirror, it’s harder for me to be in acceptance. I’m more critical. Whereas, if I just don’t look, I’m not so worried about it.”
The Halloween actress has also been open on her social media platforms regarding beauty and aging standards. Curtis claimed that there is a business of "hiding things," employing a variety of techniques including concealer and fillers, "to disguise the reality of who we are," in her reflection on the production of Everything, Everywhere, All at Once. The actor shared, “My instruction to everybody was: I want there to be no concealing of anything.” She continues, “I've been sucking my stomach in since I was 11 when you start being conscious of boys and bodies, and the jeans are super tight. I very specifically decided to relinquish and release every muscle I had that I used to clench to hide reality. That was my goal. I have never felt freer creatively and physically.”
Curtis also thought about her family and how worrying takes time away from important moments. “I am 63 years old. My mother died at 76. My father died at 85. I have no effing time to waste,” Curtis asserted. “My motto is, ‘If not now, when? And, if not me, who?’ And, that has unleashed me and freed me, and allowed me to do everything I’m doing with zero attachment.”
References:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cj5ZafSgq1B/
https://www.instagram.com/p/Ca8R4PprCrK/
Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Kevin Winter
