Andie MacDowell, 64, Just Expertly Shut Down Hateful Comments About Her Gray Hair
Andie MacDowell, 64, recently sat down with Katie Couric for a powerful conversation about aging and embracing her gray hair.
The actress opened up about aging in Hollywood and how her decision to go gray has impacted her career.
“I want to be old. I’m tired of trying to be young. I don’t want to be young. I’ve been young.”
Andie MacDowell, 64, is a wearer of many hats — model, actress and role model for all things aging glamorously. The star has never been one to shy away from embracing her iconic gray curls, whether she’s strutting down the runway during Paris Fashion Week or stunning on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival. Most recently, MacDowell sat down with Katie Couric to discuss aging, beauty, going gray — and how she’s done trying to look young.
The Maid actress has previously opened up about her silver strands, saying that going gray is “badass” and that she feels “more real and honest” with gray hair. And while MacDowell fully embraces her age, she acknowledged the difficulties of getting older in a recent conversation with Couric. MacDowell noted how working in Hollywood is “much easier in your 30s and then it gets tougher,” recalling an interview at a film festival where she was asked by a young journalist, “How does it feel to get older and lose your beauty?” after the star had turned 40. “It made me sad for her,” MacDowell told Couric, because that young girl was “going to be me someday.”
The encounter made MacDowell stop and think. “But there is a lot of relevance and truth to the aging face of a woman, and the aging face of a man, and how it affects your career — it does,” MacDowell continued, noting that there tends to be a period of time where “people don’t quite know what to do with you.” But now, MacDowell says she is in a place where she is “so in” her “age,” noting that her gray “hair really does help that ... people are more comfortable, even men are more comfortable, now they know what to do with me.”
When asked about her decision to go gray, MacDowell said that it was “something I had wanted young, at a younger age, I thought that it would suit me, I really did,” she explained. “I thought that the idea of a kind of salt and pepper would suit me. I thought it would look good on my face. And when it started growing out during COVID I saw I was right ... It looks good on me.”
The 64 year old found that her silver strands brought out a whole new way to view beauty. “As it was growing out, my eyes popped, the color of them looked a little different. I liked the way my skin looked better,” MacDowell continued. “And there was a feeling, it empowered me more. I felt more powerful and I felt more genuine and I felt more myself.”
And while for the most part, MacDowell receives a lot of support for her decisions around aging and beauty, she still gets comments about her gray hair making her “look older,” which she says makes her laugh. “How old do you think I look? You know, I’m [going to] be 65. What do you think I look 75 just because I let my hair go gray?” she says while acknowledging the way women with “silver hair” tend to be perceived. “I don’t care. I want to be old. I’m tired of trying to be young. I don’t want to be young. I’ve been young.”
Couric explained that “as we show more images of women aging, [and] older women, it becomes more normalized.” She then commended MacDowell for being “someone who people see as embracing the age she’s in, and loving the age she’s in, and making the most of the age she’s in.”
We couldn’t agree more! MacDowell is an inspiration, and we can’t wait to see what the future holds for the icon.
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