Madonna’s unrecognizable face at the Grammys on Sunday has sparked a wave of speculation about the procedures she’s had in order to hold back the years – with the unfortunate result being an unnaturally tightened and puffy face.
But while the pressure to stay looking youthful in the spotlight is undoubtedly high, other famous faces have embraced a more natural kinf of beauty on hitting their 60s.
While it’s rare to find a star who hasn’t taken advantage of the best skincare experts and aestheticians and the jabs, lasers and reviving facial peels they have in their arsenal, a swathe of famous faces prove that you can keep things subtle.
Jamie Lee Curtis for instance, who is the same age as Madonna, 64, has had Botox in the past, but admitted that the procedure left her feeling worse about herself and is a vocal advocate for ‘not f***ing with your face.’
Meanwhile, Andie MacDowell turned heads when she debuted a grey mane at the Cannes Festival in 2021 and has been rocking the natural look ever since, saying she’s never ‘felt more powerful.’
JAMIE LEE CURTIS
Jamie Lee Curtis, 64, who is nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the Oscars for her performance in Everything, Everywhere All At Once, has spoken about ageing in the past
Jamie Lee Curtis, 64, who is nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the Oscars for her performance in Everything, Everywhere All At Once, has spoken about ageing in the past.
The star previously revealed that a cameraman’s comments about her ‘puffy eyes’ on the set of Perfect in 1985 led her to make some changes.
But she later detailed her plastic surgery regrets, including Botox and lipo, as she admitted that the cosmetic procedures made her ‘feel worse’ and lamented: ‘It didn’t work, I hated it!’
Speaking to Lorraine Kelly in October 2021, the Hollywood icon insisted that she’s learned her lesson.
‘I have been an advocate for natural beauty for a long time, mostly because I’ve had the trial and error of the other part,’ she said.
The actress has said she is a fierce advocate of ‘not f***ing with your face’ and regretted trying Botox in the past (pictured in December last year)
Madonna’s smooth appearance shocked fans when she attended the Grammys in Los Angeles on Sunday
‘I did plastic surgery – it didn’t work, I hated it. It made me feel worse!
‘I tried to do everything you can do to your hair. Personally, I felt it was humiliating. I would go into a hair salon, the smell of the chemicals, the feeling of that colour on my hair, sitting under the hairdryer – it was like, for what?
‘So very early on in my career, I had a perm and then had to dye my hair for a movie, and it burned my hair off my head!
‘And the first time I cut my hair short I went, “Oh! Oh my god. Oh wow! I look like me!” Since then I stopped dyeing it, and then I’ve been an advocate for not f**king with your face.
‘And the term, anti-ageing… what? What are you talking about? We’re all going to f***ing age! We’re all going to die? Why do you want to look 17 when you’re 70? I want to look 70 when I’m 70.’
In 2002 Jamie told More magazine: ‘Ten years ago, before anybody did that, I had fat taken from underneath my eyes because I was on a movie and I was puffy. … And I can remember the cameraman saying, “I can’t shoot her”. I remember being mortified.’ she explained.
She added: ‘I’ve had a little lipo. I’ve had a little Botox. And you know what? None of it works. None of it. It’s such a fraud. And I’m the one perpetuating it.’
Jamie also spoke to Fast Company about her stance on plastic surgery and trendy cosmetic procedures.
She insisted: ‘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,’ warned the actress, who also sports a short, salt and pepper bob.
ANDIE MACDOWELL
Andie MacDowell, 64, has been embracing her grey hair since 2021, and said she’s never felt more powerful (pictured in October 2021)
Four Weddings alum Andie MacDowell, 64, has also taken a strong stance on embracing your real age and has been rocking her natural hair too.
In 2021, the Groundhog actress wowed the red carpet when she debuted a more natural grey hue at the Cannes Festival.
She decided to embrace her salt and pepper curls after tiring of her colour routine during the coronavirus pandemic lockdown.
She revealed last year that she felt much ‘more comfortable’ with the more natural look, admitting she really liked it.
The Four Weddings and A Funeral star, 64, also shared that she would rather age naturally, explaining: ‘I truly want to be where I am and look my age’.
Talking to The Times, the actress explained her relief over the positive response she received for embracing a grey haired look.
Andie also detailed that she took the plunge despite being told not to make the change, as people around her ‘strongly advised against it’.
Explaining: ‘People kept saying to me, “It’s not time,” but I disagreed. I was kowtowing to everybody else’s beliefs, but I truly want to be where I am and look my age.’
Back in 2021 when she debuted the ‘salt and pepper’ look hair, she explained that her daughters even thought she looked like a ‘bada**” during an appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show.
The actress has embraced ageing gracefully, despite admitting to considering cosmetic surgery on her ‘droopy eyelids’ – but decided against it when a facialist dubbed them ‘perfect’.
EMMA THOMPSON
Emma Thompson, 63, has also advocated for natural ageing and called plastic surgery a ‘collective psychosis’ (pictured in October 2022)
The actress said she thinks cosmetic surgery is a ‘strange thing to do.’ Pictured in London last October
At 63, Emma Thompson has also embraced the ageing process, sporting grey streaks in her sandy hair and dressing age-appropriately.
The actress looks great every time she hits the red carpet, not letting her fine lines stopping her from looking glamourous.
Talking to The Wrap last year, Thompson, 63, said plastic surgery was a form of ‘collective psychosis.’
‘Why would you do that to yourself, I simply don’t understand,’ she said. ‘I do honestly think the cutting of yourself off to put it in another place in order to avoid appearing to do what you’re actually doing, which is aging, which is completely natural, is a form of collective psychosis.
‘I really do think it’s a very strange thing to do,’ she added, specifying that she’s always felt that way.
She also said she was proud that her 2022 movie God Luck to You, Leo Grande, showed her nude ‘untreated body.’
SHARON STONE
At 64, Sharon Stone has revealed she doesn’t do Botox anymore, in spite of trying it at the height of her career
Meanwhile, Sharon Stone has admitted to struggling with her ageing looks in the past.
Admitting she has previously dabbled with tweakments, including Botox, the star, 64, explained the stroke she went through in 2001 completely changed her relationship with cosmetic surgery.
However, in recent years, she has sported a more natural look on the red carpet and doesn’t seem to be worried about her fine lines or crows feet anymore.
She told Vogue Arabia’s September issue in 2022: ‘Life doesn’t always make you feel like a winner as you grow older.’
The actress had to have 300 shots of Botox and filler to reconstruct her face after the stroke.
She said it transformed the tweakments from ‘cute luxury to some kind of massive, painful neurological need.’
She also revealed that she has learned to embrace her body as she grows older, and even had a spat with a younger lover about it.
When asked by the man if she had had Botox, she told him: ‘It would probably be really good for your ego and mine if I did.’
She added the pair stopped seeing each other shortly after that.
DAWN FRENCH
Dawn French, 65, began to embrace her grey hair during the coronavirus lockdown, and has said ageing is a privilege, but ‘not for wusses’
Meanwhile Jamie Lee’s hair actually inspired Dawn French, 65, this side of the pond, who swapped her regulation neck-length black bob for a similar do after lockdown.
Reflecting on her colour change last October, French admitted she had been shocked by how interested in her hair people had been.
‘There comes a point when you just think, “Maybe it’s time to stop covering it up. Maybe it’s time for hair to match face”. The trigger came during the lockdowns and I couldn’t be bothered with dyeing it. It feels liberating, but if I decide I don’t like it, I’ll just start having it dyed again!’
The actress has never tried to hide the signs of time on her skin, and has remained glam without ironing her fine lines or wrinkles around her eyes.
In her podcast podcast Titting About, with Jennifer Saunders, the actress has said she ‘[plans] to grow old disgracefully.’
The Vicar of Dibley actress has admitted ‘things go a bit wrong’ when you age, but has made her peace with that
‘Getting older isn’t for wusses. Things stop working, you have to have a knee operation, your teeth are a bit yellower, your chin has sagged,’ she admitted.
In 2020, the The Vicar of Dibley actress said ageing ‘is a privilege’ which has caused her to edit out ‘eejits’ from her life.
In an interview with the Radio Times, the comedian, 65, admitted the process has seen her ‘teeth yellow, chin sag and become fatter’, but she has insisted maturing ‘ain’t so bad’.
She said: ‘It’s a privilege to get older, but it’s not for wusses. Things go a bit wrong.’
The TV star said: ‘Your rheumatoid arthritis knee stops you walking your dog a long way every morning, you know you’ve got to have a little op on that at some point, and you’ve got to take six weeks off…
‘But ultimately, it ain’t so bad. Your teeth are a bit yellower, your chin has sagged, you’re fatter, you’re greyer.
‘The only thing is, I feel the tick tock a little bit. I am quicker to edit out eejits from my life, because I haven’t got the hours. That’s the only grumpy part of me, it’s just to do with time.’
DENISE WELCH
Denise Welch, 64, has opened up about having eye surgery for her 50th birthday, but has advised Loose Women viewers against trying fillers in the past
As a regular member of the Loose Women panel, Denise Welch, 64, has been open about her ageing process.
She has been sporting a white bob for years, relying on makeup to entertain her healthy glow without surgical enhancements, saying she found it empowering to showcase her body as it looks now that she is in her 60s.
Appearing on pal Kaye Adams’ How To Be 60 podcast, Denise spoke candidly about feeling comfortable in her own skin and embracing ageing.
‘If anybody says that I help to empower women then that’s a badge I’ll wear.
‘I get so much flack for still posing in swimsuits at 64 but I don’t care because if one person says ‘I was feeling really low on myself and I saw you in a swimsuit and you’re in your sixties..’
‘And you know, I don’t filter them – partly because I don’t know how to,’ she explained.
Upon turning 60 in 2018, the actress said in an Instagram post: ‘Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter!!! #seniorrailcard”.’
While the Corrie alum and Celebrity Big Brother winner has admitted going under the knife in the past, she has since then spoken out against it, and warned the Loose Women viewers not to use fillers in 2019.
In 2016, she opened up in the Belfast Telegraph about having eye surgery, which she said was one of the best thing she’s ever done.
‘I had my eyes done, but that was a treat to myself for my 50th birthday, against everybody’s advice, and it was the best thing I ever did, because it made me look better,’ she said.
‘I’ve never really fancied having anything else done. I don’t know if I’d have any more surgery, but I might if I felt something was upsetting me.
‘I have no fear of looking older. I love my wrinkles and I feel better mentally and physically at 57 than I’ve felt for years. I feel like I’m only 57,’ she said at the time.
SEAN BEAN
Sean Bean, 63, once said he wouldn’t be touching up his face. His craggy looks have earned him many roles as a hard man
Men’s looks also count when it comes to casting.
One actor who knows this well is Sean Bean, 63, whose craggy looks have earned it ‘hard men’ roles over the years.
While he was crowned, 2004’s Sexiest Man Alive, once dubbed ‘Mean Sting’ for his long blonde hair by the Times, Bean has embraced a conservative attitude to ageing, promoting natural ages over any tweakments.
Lines of his forehead and baggy eyes have only added to the Lord of the Rings’ actor’s gruff appearance, scoring him roles like Ned Stark in Game of Thrones.
The actor has been vocal about his disdain for plastic surgery in the past.
In 2015, he told The Times: ‘You look at all the old actors: Peter O’Toole, Richard Burton. I think of Pete Postlethwaite. Face like granite. An in-cre-dible actor. And I think: “Nooor! Pete wouldn’t have done that!”‘
In the same interview, he also insisted he doesn’t dye his hair, however, nearly eight years on, his blonde hair remains.
TOM HANKS
Hollywood’s favourite every man, Tom Hanks, 656 seems to have embraced natural ageing as well
The Big actor has played everyone and everything, from the romantic lead to a toy cow-boy and soldiers.
Some Hollywood big names might be tempted to chase youth with a few discreet treatments, but now 66, he appears he has embraced his age.
The big screen’s every man is not one to dwell on his looks, and has scarcely discussed them.
But the actor’s sudden weight loss worried fans last year, who noted that he appeared to have ‘aged all of a sudden’ at the Elvis’ movie premiere on the Gold Coast.
‘I love Tom Hanks. I saw him on screen recently and thought he was very thin. I hope he’s doing well.’ said one fan,’ another said.
BRYAN CRANSTON
Bryan Cranston, 66, aid he tries to stay fit by exercising and keeping a healthy diet, but chuckled when asked if he had had cosmetic surgery in 2014 (pictured in January with Aaron Paul, right, in Houston)
The Breaking Bad actor, 66, has been open about trying to keep fit as he’s grown older.
He told the Financial Times in 2014 that he tried to run as much as possible and observed a healthy diet.
Meanwhile, when asked about whether he’d have cosmetic surgery, the Malcom In The Middle actor joked he wanted the same breasts as Pamela Anderson, indicating he had little interest in going under the knife.
‘Challenging myself is important. The problem with getting older is the tendency to stop exploring: this is what I do, what I eat, where I go.
‘With something new, you allow yourself to be a beginner again. It’s really humbling, and important you don’t think there’s nothing new for you to learn,’ he said.
PETER CAPALDI
With his angular face and salt and pepper hair, Peter Capaldi, 64, has always had an older man quality about him. Pictured in December last year
With his angular face and salt and pepper hair, Peter Capaldi has always had an older man quality about him.
The Glasgow actor, 64, was famously thought by fans to be to old to take on the role of Doctor Who when he joined the BBC series in 2013.
At the time, he was 55, ten years younger than he is now. Yet, he went on to play the iconic role for four years, until he was replaced by Jodie Whittacker in 2018.
In 2014, the actor revealed he himself thought he was too old to take the role from Matt Smith, who was 31 at the time he left the role.
‘I wouldn’t have thought it would be me.” Why not? “Because of my age. I would have thought they were automatically heading younger,’ he told Entertainment Weekly at the time.
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