Justine Batemanwasn’t afraid to speak her truth about aging in last week’s interview with60 Minutes Australia.
Theinterviewcaught people’s attention after the director, actor and author gave a message to anyone who says she “looks old.” TheFamily Tiesstar said: “I just don’t give a s—. I think I look rad. I think my face represents who I am. I like it.”
Speaking toHoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie this morningon theTODAY Show,Batemansaid that after the segment aired, she received a meaningful message. The woman, a mom, said, “I never realized what impact this conversation was having on younger women until my [16-year-old] daughter came in from the other room. She said, ‘Hey, did you guys see the60 Minutesthing with Justine Bateman?’ She said it was great–now I’m not afraid of getting old.”
Bateman was glad to hear it. “I was like, oh my god, if just one person, like, is not afraid,” she said. “It’s silly. I’ve never been smarter, I’ve never had more connections. It’s like when you’re younger you know the [guy at the] door of the nightclub? When you’re older, you know the person who owns the building that the nightclub is in.”
The 57-year-old said the war on aging was an “inside job” that left some women doubting their appearance. “I would say to any young woman, you’re being lied to. Who is making money off this? You’re being lied to and you’re being tricked off your path… You’ve got awesome things coming your way. Just stay on your path and just ride it out.”
Bateman toldKotbandGuthrieit was this fear that left people not wanting to look older. “Some people are afraid they’ll lose their job or never get a job or not get a mate or no one’s going to listen to them or whatever. And that fear, my position is, that fear existed before their face started changing,” Bateman says.
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“I’m just somebody who got myself on the other side of what that fear was for me in particular, and I’m just sharing what worked for me. Lots of ways to get there, but for anyone who wants to get free,” she told theTODAY Show.
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“I feel sad for them, I feel sad that they are not just enjoying life. I feel sad that they are distracted from the things that they are meant to do in life … with this consuming idea that they’ve got to fix their face before anything else can happen.”
Bateman says she searched for a deeper understanding of aging and beauty standards in her 40s while writing her first book,Fame: The Hijacking of Reality. She remembers Googling herself and finding the autocomplete: “looks old.“Justine Bateman looks old.
“I thought my face looked fine,” the actor-turned-director told PEOPLE in 2021 ahead of the release of another book,Face: One Square Foot of Skin.“Because of some of the fears I had, unrelated to my face, I decided to make them right and me wrong… I became really ashamed of my face, ridiculously so.”
source: people.com
