Renée Zellweger is loving life in her fifties.
The two-time Academy Award winner, 53, spoke out about growing older in a new interview with The Sunday Times, revealing that she thinks anti-aging products are “garbage” and that women should “embrace your age.”
“All those ads telling us we don’t need to look our real age if we just buy all their creams and their fixes and all that garbage they want to sell us?” Zellweger said. “I’m like, what, you’re saying I’m not valuable anymore because I’m 53? Is that what you’re saying?”
The “Bridget Jones’s Diary” star — who told the publication she “couldn’t wait to turn 50,” stressed that she has “no interest” in turning back the clock.
“Turning 50 felt like a whole new beginning without the nonsense, the point where you can stop listening to all those voices in your head and all those expectations and projections people have of you and become more authentically yourself,” she said.
These days, being “authentically” herself means spending lots of quality time with her reality star boyfriend, Ant Anstead, 43, whom she’s been dating since 2021, and promoting her new series “The Thing About Pam,” which premiered in the United States in March but has just hit TV screens in the UK.
In the show, Zellweger plays Pam Hupp, a real-life woman who killed her friend and co-worker in 2011 — and the actress has faced criticism for wearing a fat suit to transform into the role.
“Look, you want to be respectful and responsible,” she said about the plus-size bodysuit, adding, “There’s always a limit to how much you can establish an authentic approximation without being distracting.”
Indeed, the “Judy” actress — who denied having plastic surgery in 2016 after rumors about her appearance abounded — puts an emphasis on being true to herself after leaving Hollywood for six years.
“Who’s redefining 50 or 60 without having to say, ‘Hey, look at me with my clothes off and I still look almost as good as I did back then?’” Zellweger said. “I don’t want to be ‘almost what I was.’ I want to be a thousand times better!”
While the “Jerry Maguire” star didn’t outright criticize treatments like Botox or fillers, she said, “go get your hair done or your skin fixed or have that day at the spa or whatever it is that makes you feel great. But let who you are and what you contribute and how you represent yourself at that age lead.”
She added, “to be vibrant and beautiful you must embrace your age, otherwise you are living apologetically and to me that’s not beautiful at all.”
As for the younger generation, Zellweger has one thing to say. “Like, good luck all you suckers out there because you’ve got to survive a lot to get to my age, and I’ve earned my power and voice.”
