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Jamie Lee Curtis is over the term anti-aging. She's all about embracing natural changes, which she shared in a conversation with Maria Shriver at the Radically Reframing Aging Summit.
"This word 'anti-aging' has to be struck. I am pro-aging," the 63-year-old actress declared in a video, according to Prevention. "I want to age with intelligence and grace and dignity and verve and energy." (Related: Why Jessica Alba Isn't Afraid of Aging)
Embracing exactly who she is seems to be at the forefront of Curtis' mind right now. A few days after the summit, she posted a photo on Instagram of herself in character for her latest film Everything Everywhere All at Once with a caption about the beauty industry.
"In the world, there is an industry — a billion-dollar, trillion-dollar industry — about hiding things. Concealers. Body-shapers. Fillers. Procedures. Clothing. Hair accessories. Hair products. Everything to conceal the reality of who we are," she wrote in the post's caption.
Curtis shared that she didn't want to hide anything while shooting the movie, in which she plays an auditor named Deirdre Beaubeirdra. "My instruction to everybody was: I want there to be no concealing of anything. I've been sucking my stomach in since I was 11…I very specifically decided to relinquish and release every muscle I had that I used to clench to hide reality," the caption continued.
The result? Curtis says she has "never felt more free creatively and physically." And the post is just one of many times Curtis had spoken up about society's impossible beauty standards. She has previously been open about how plastic surgery, opioids, and the filtered social media landscape have affected her life — and the ramifications go far beyond shaky self-esteem. (Related: Tia Mowry Posted a No-Filter Video and Opened Up About the Pressure to Be Perfect)
"I tried plastic surgery and it didn't work," said Curtis in an interview with Fast Company last year. "It got me addicted to Vicodin. I'm 22 years sober now. The current trend of fillers and procedures, and this obsession with filtering, and the things that we do to adjust our appearance on Zoom are wiping out generations of beauty. Once you mess with your face, you can't get it back." (Related: This Photo Editing Has Gone Viral On Instagram — and, Yep, It's Bad for Your Mental Health)
In different interview with The New Yorker last year, Curtis shared that while filming the 1985 film Perfect, the actress overheard a cameraman say, "I'm not shooting her today," referencing her puffy eyes, which left her feeling "mortified" and insecure. "Right after that movie I went and had an eye job," recalled Curtis. "That's when I found Vicodin, and the cycle of addiction began with that."
Curtis had previously delved into her battle with opioid addiction in a 2018 interview with People, explaining, "I was ahead of the curve of the opiate epidemic. I had a 10-year run, stealing, conniving. No one knew. No one." The actress, 62, has a history of addiction in her family: Her father, screen legend Tony Curtis, was an alcoholic and abused cocaine and heroin; her half-brother, Nicholas, died from a heroin overdose in 1994.
Curtis also said in her 2018 interview with People that she had spent a decade hiding her addiction from her loved ones, even stealing pills from her own sister before attending her first recovery meeting in 1999. "I'm breaking the cycle that has basically destroyed the lives of generations in my family," said Curtis. "Getting sober remains my single greatest accomplishment … bigger than my husband, bigger than both of my children, and bigger than any work, success, failure. Anything."
In her Fast Company interview, Curtis also voiced strong opinions about the downside of social media and its impact on young people. (Related: Using These Instagram Filters Might Be a Sign of Depression)
"I use social media to sell things and amplify things I care about. Period. The rest is cancer," said Curtis. "I never read one comment. I believe I can do my job and have a private life. I believe in the separation of church and state. I believe that I do not owe anybody anything once I've done my work. I am by nature a super-friendly person, but I also have a very clear boundary of what is appropriate and inappropriate for me to share."
Curtis added that "there's some remarkable good that has come from social media," activism, specifically. "The best example is Greta Thunberg. I've been inspired watching the movement she created," she told Fast Company. "It's also very dangerous. It's like giving a chainsaw to a toddler. We just don't know the longitudinal effect, mentally, spiritually, and physically, on a generation of young people who are in agony because of social media, because of the comparisons to others. All of us who are old enough know that it's all a lie. It's a real danger to young people." (Related: Facebook Knows You Better Than Your Best Friend)
While Curtis likes to keep some parts of her life private, judging by her latest remarks, she doesn't plan to stop speaking on the impacts of toxic body standards any time soon.
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