Anderson’s aging anxiety

Gillian Anderson is coming to terms with what time is doing to her beauty, said Julia Llewellyn Smith in The Daily Telegraph (U.K.). “Plastic surgery does cross my mind,” says the 44-year-old actress. “I remember a couple of years ago looking in the mirror when I noticed some changes. I was so shocked that for a few seconds I convinced myself I’d eaten something I was allergic to. Then I realized, ‘No, that’s what happens.’” Fame leads some people to believe they’re “invincible,” she says, “that age isn’t going to touch us, so your response when you see the skin on your forearms changing is, ‘Ooh, what the…?’ There was a period of time thinking, ‘Surely something can be done without having to be cut into?’ Then eventually you think, ‘Oh, there’s not.’” She admires the famous women who’ve said no to plastic surgery, including Judi Dench and Charlotte Rampling. “There are so many women who have allowed themselves to get old naturally, and the fact is you can always tell when something’s been done.” Still, she admits, it’s a daily struggle to see one’s youth fade. “I’d like to get to the point where I would look in the mirror and not feel bad but celebrate the natural process.”

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