“Isn’t the light amazing!” Andie MacDowell exclaims over my Zoom background in her hypnotic Southern voice. It’s really funny considering I’m sitting in a car parked outside a pub on a drizzly Sunday afternoon.
I explained that I was celebrating my first birthday and that, of course, parents in London tend to kneel down and camp out at the local liquor store. “Oh, I love it,” she smiles, her perfect Hollywood smile framed by cascading silver curls.
I get that she has a soft spot for Brits – and I think the feeling is mutual – at least in part because of the 90s blockbuster movie that catapulted McDowell to fame, Four Weddings and a Funeral. It’s all thanks to our collective nostalgia for the film, which won 24 awards, including four British Academy Awards.
Even though her career was already budding before she landed the role of the charismatic, lone American Carrie in Four Weddings, this role is by far the character for which she is most revered. Twenty years later, my co-workers still smile wistfully when I mention the title of this film.
“I’ve always loved doing romantic comedies,” she tells me. “That’s probably going to be my strength until I leave[the industry]…I love comedy – and you know what I really want to do? British comedy. You guys do the best comedy. ”
As a deeply aspirational goal, she said she took an 18-month “vacation” from watching television in order to read more books. It wasn’t until she started watching TV again that she discovered British television, and one in particular.
“These women were doing this funny little scene where they couldn’t remember John Travolta’s name. Oh, I should have seen the name.” She paused for a moment and tried to remember it. “It’s called The Change. Have you seen it? Man, it’s really cool.”
I have – and it is so. This clever Channel 4 comedy follows Linda, a woman who discovers she is menopausal and tries to find a new life. John Travolta’s scenes are both hilarious depictions of menopausal brain fog and hilariously funny.
The existence of comedy like this is evidence that editors are listening to the aging conversation. Does Andy think women over 50 are becoming more visible? “I don’t think we’ve made enough progress,” she begins. “The fact that people are suffering so much at the thought of Kamala Harris becoming president, and the way she’s being treated, shows how insecure our culture is toward women. It proves that.
“I hope I can be a part of that progress that we are making.”
She’s not wrong. With the election just weeks away, misogyny shows no signs of abating, with an editorial in the New York Post declaring her a “DEI hire” (short for diversity, equity, and inclusion in America). . Childless cat lady” JD Vance comments. “[Some people in society]feel like we can still be defined by prehistoric ideas of what it means to be a woman, and we need to break out of that mold,” Andy told me. told. “I hope I can be a part of that progress that we are making.”
On the subject of progress, it’s no secret that one of the most disappointing aspects of the entertainment industry is its disposable attitude towards female talent as they age. But McDowell joins a growing number of celebrities who have no qualms about aging in the spotlight. Unattainable beauty standards promoted in a youth-obsessed culture are part of the problem, but the subject is getting more airtime than ever before.
Just this month, Andy’s daughter Margaret Qualley played the role of daughter in the award-winning 2020 Netflix drama Maid and starred in the feminist body horror Substance, which explores harmful beauty ideals and the prevalence of age. He sounded the alarm against discrimination. Among other things, it offers skin-altering filters and AI influencers.
Andy supports the movie. “I’m really looking forward to seeing the movie and want to go to the theater like everyone else,” she told me. “I’m really proud of my daughter. She’s an extraordinary person. I’m glad she and Demi[Moore, who co-stars with Qualley]and the two of them were able to do this together.” I can’t wait to see it. ”
You don’t have to spend long in Andy’s orbit to see that her belief that aging and relatedness are not mutually exclusive concepts runs deep. She has been a global ambassador for L’Oréal Paris since 1985, a brand where championing older women is a core value, and the longest-serving representative of the brand.
“They were the first brand I saw using older women[in ads and as brand ambassadors]showing that older women are still relative and have a seat at the table. And it showed that we can still be attractive and beautiful as we age.”I’m really proud to work for that company,” she told me.
This is a sentiment she swears by in her own approach to beauty. She stopped dyeing her hair during the pandemic because her children told her her salt-and-pepper hair was “terrible.” “I was surprised by the attention, she recalls, but I was grateful because it would help other women feel the same way.” We know it’s engaging, fun, and an option. ”
And now? “I don’t think about it anymore. I’m similar to men in a lot of ways because I don’t sit and think, ‘Oh, my hair is silver,'” she added, “So why on earth would I? Do you have to do that?” He looked at me.
Are there any other beauty practices she swears by even in her 60s? “I fill in my eyebrows with the L’Oréal Paris Infallible 24H Brow Filling Triangle Pencil because as you get older, your eyebrows get a little thinner. I do it everywhere I go, even when I’m walking on the beach. Because it looks very strange.”
Walks on the beach are a regular part of her training week. “I’m very lucky to enjoy exercise. For me, it’s fun,” she told me about working on moving both her body and mind. “I love walking and try to walk eight miles a day. However, I don’t always manage to do that when I’m filming.”
Even when working long hours, she still manages to work out her workouts. “When I’m on set, I do 30 minutes of yoga during lunch because I don’t feel good otherwise.” Her North Star? strength. “I don’t want to be weak, I want to be strong – and that doesn’t mean being skinny or skinny,” she began, then told me it straight. “When you get to my age, you realize how difficult and stupid it is and what a waste of time it is. And you realize it’s not important.”
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