The main fear about growing old as an actor is not losing the looks. I never had any to speak of, and what I had I've still got, but losing the memory is another matter.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Aging in Hollywood sucks. There's always so much pressure to look way younger than you are, and everyone's watching! I'd like to embrace getting older, because it's kind of inevitable. The different, wiser me, to be at peace with how I look and I'm supposed to look - it's a work in progress.
As an actor, one of my greatest fears is losing my memory.
When you're younger, the mental strain of being a successful actor, jumping from role to role, and trying to have some kind of personal life, can really be terrible.
The idea of getting old is horrific, but I don't want to make it worse by becoming a grotesque caricature. A lot of people have made that mistake of trying so hard to hang on to their looks that they make themselves look really scary.
The truth is that from the age of 14, I felt about 40, and for that reason, I felt that I would never succeed as an actor until my looks caught up with my actual age.
With actors, all our ages are out there for all to see - you can't hide anything, really. And it's kind of a relief. This is my age, this is what I look like without makeup on - who cares? That youth culture - that lying about your age - it's all denial of death anyway.
I think most models fear growing old, but from a tender age I had always chosen to play someone grown up. I am slowly but surely catching up with the people that I have spent the last decade and a half trying to portray.
Being an actor does make you aware of your age.
I think in the acting world you either manage that transition to older roles, or you stick with what you've always done and then discover nobody can bear you doing it as an older person.
I think, as a younger actor, you are more open to the experience. And to an extent, you want to go into things blind and energised as if you were 15. Keep that terror.