Gwyneth Paltrow Talked About Aging in Hollywood: "What Happens to Your Identity as a Woman?"

Gwyneth talked being "put in a box" as an actress.

By Emily Dixon

Jul 26, 2019

Edward Berthelot Getty Images

Hollywood, as you're almost certainly aware, isn't the kindest when it comes to appearances, particularly when it comes to women. Even Gwyneth Paltrow, who fits pretty much every aspect of Hollywood's exclusionary beauty ideal, grapples with insecurity, she revealed recently. Speaking on the Goop podcast The Beauty Closet, Gwyneth talked about self-image as a celebrity, and how that changes with age.

As a woman in the entertainment industry, Gwyneth said she feels like she's often "cast as something and put in a box," as People reports. "It’s a weird thing to be—I don’t mean in a pejorative way objectified," she said. "I think when you come to age, if you have this broad identity as that, what does it mean to get wrinkles and, like, get closer to menopause, and all these things?"

"What happens to your identity as a woman if you’re not f**kable and beautiful?" she said.

Gwyneth doesn't have the confidence about her appearance you might expect, she said. "I’ve always felt so funny about my looks," she told podcast hosts Jean Godfrey-June and Megan O’Neill. "I think that it’s very rare to think that you’re a beautiful person, and so, I feel like every other woman—like, I don’t see that when I look in the mirror."

That doesn't mean she's unhappy about her changing appearance as she grows older, however. "Luckily, what’s happening at the same time in parallel is you just start to like yourself," she said. "I think you get to a point where it’s almost like your sort of pulchritude is waning in a way and your inner beauty is, like, really coming out, and so it’s this funny shift that’s happening."

"It’s like, you feel so good, you know who you are, hopefully, you value the relationships in your life and your work and your contribution to the world," Gwyneth said. Though it's hard not to have the odd wobble, she laughed. "But then you’re like, 'Wow, I have crow’s feet. Damn!'"

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