The Oscar winner and Goop founder celebrated her 50th birthday this year and discussed her decade-old fears that “society isn’t going to want me” aging.
Gwyneth Paltrow works twice as hard in the boardroom and the kitchen.
The Academy Award winner addressed her passion for cooking as she grows older, having celebrated her 50th birthday on September 27.
“I feel so happy being 50,” the Goop founder told People magazine. “I really flipped out when I turned 40, because I thought, ‘My life is over. I’m not going to be attractive anymore, and society isn’t going to want me.’ I really panicked. Turning 50 was the polar opposite. I was like, ‘I’ve never felt better in my own skin, and I don’t care if people think I’m attractive or not. I love myself.’ It’s a great feeling.”
One of those “great feelings” come from cooking a “boyfriend breakfast” for her husband Brad Falchuk.
“Brad loves breakfast, and he definitely feels the love when I cook for him,” Paltrow said. “We were talking about this at Goop: Can you be a feminist if you still want to cook? I really derive so much grounding and pleasure from cooking. If you ask my kids, it’s the way I express love. It’s like, ‘Oh, you’re home. Can I make you a quesadilla and some guacamole?’ It gets me in a completely different headspace.”
Paltrow added of her age, “There are things that can still throw me off, and I can get self-doubt, but I think for the most part I know who I am. I like who I am. And I know the direction I’m going in. There’s an ease that has happened.”
And while Paltrow hasn’t been onscreen since 2020’s “The Politician,” the actress admitted earlier this year that she doesn’t miss acting “at all” and instead is focusing on her Goop empire.
Naomi Watts and Geena Davis both spoke out earlier this year on a lack of roles after turning 40. Watts theorized Hollywood deems actresses “unfuckable” after a certain age, while Davis likened aging to a “forced retirement” after the “work dried up.”
“The really cool parts for people in their 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, whatever, always go to men,” Davis said. “I said at one point to my agent, ‘Can we find out what Liam Neeson is turning down and go for those parts?’”
To combat any aging criticisms, Paltrow posed nude for her 50th birthday in a “Goldfinger”-inspired bronze body paint.
“It’s more about the female gaze and just a sense of fun,” Paltrow said at the time. “I think aging is actually a beautiful thing. We just need to open our perceptions. As you become more yourself, in integrity, your life really opens up.”
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