Women have long been led to believe that talk of getting older is to be avoided at all costs – whether that’s a result of marketing’s relentless focus on “eradicating” wrinkles, or, until recently, the deafening silence around the subject of perimenopause. The subliminal messaging hasn’t always been so subliminal. So it’s refreshing to hear Kate Winslet, one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, expound on her own experience of getting older. Spoiler alert: it’s happy-making stuff.
“I think women come into their forties – certainly mid-forties, and think, ‘Oh, this is the beginning of the decline… things start to change and fade in directions that I don’t want them to go in anymore’,” she said in an interview with the BBC’s Woman’s Hour. “But I’ve decided, no. We become more woman, more powerful, more sexy… we grow into ourselves more. We have opportunities to speak our mind and not be afraid of what people think of us. Not care what we look like so much.” This specific phase of life, Kate says, is “amazing”.
It’s not the first time Winslet has argued the case for the upsides to getting older. Earlier in the year, she filmed a L’Oréal Lessons of Worth campaign in which she removed all of her make-up, while emphasising that happiness isn’t about what you look like – even if social media might suggest as much.
Last year, she also spoke to Vogue about ageing in Hollywood. “I do want to say to any woman who is trying to emulate a Hollywood look: it’s a myth. It’s honestly a myth,” she said. “For me, the secret to ageing at any age, in Hollywood or not, is actually accepting who you are and accepting that we can’t fight change.” Beauty, she reminded us, comes from within.
Kate walks the walk, too. Who could forget the Oscar-winner’s admirably vanity-free (and critically-acclaimed) performance as Mare Sheehan in Mare of Easttown? Winslet seemed to revel in adopting her character’s grown-out roots, dowdy wardrobe and perma-frown – and became an unlikely lockdown style icon in the process.
In an ideal world, every woman would have the 47-year-old Winslet on speed dial, for a handy empowering pep talk or just a good dose of common sense every now and again. After all, ageing is a beautiful thing – especially, as they say, when you consider the alternatives. “Let’s go girls, and let's be in our power,” she says. “Why not? Life is too flipping short.”
