The Oscar-winning actress opened up about the expectations for actress in Hollywood.
Julianne Moore is reflecting on Hollywood beauty standards and how it's impacted her in the past.
The Oscar-winning star sat down for an interview with the UK's Sunday Times and explained how, despite her undeniably successful career, she's still faced her fair share of criticism and demeaning remarks about her appearance.
"Someone in the film industry said to me, 'You should try to look prettier,'" she shared. "I was like, 'I don't know if I can.'"
Moore explained that the film industry is "a business where there is some physicality involved," however she feels that "beauty and prettiness are subjective."
"My red hair made me feel like an outsider growing up... redheads are 2 percent of the global population. Nobody wants to feel like they're in the minority, particularly as a young child," Moore said, explaining that she's learned to look at her uniqueness in all its strengths.
"Now, I feel very identified with my hair and freckles," she said, admitting, "but there's still a part of me that would rather be a tanned blonde."
Moore previously opened up about the stigma of appearances and especially aging in showbusiness. In an interview with As If magazine in 2021, Moore opened up about the inherent judgment that surrounds the term "aging gracefully."
"There's so much judgment inherent in the term 'aging gracefully,'" she told the magazine. "Is there an ungraceful way to age? We don't have an option of course. No one has an option about aging, so it's not a positive or a negative thing, it just is. It's part of the human condition, so why are we always talking about it as if it is something that we have control over?"
When it comes to aging, Moore says she follows Helen Mirren's philosophy that "aging is a requirement of life, you either grow old or die young."
Moore told the magazine that she wants people to think about aging from a different perspective.
"I think we are given a narrative as children that we keep growing through school, maybe go to college then, after school is finished, the idea of growth is done," she explained. "But, we have all this life left to live. How do we continue to challenge ourselves, to interest ourselves, learn new things, be more helpful to other people, be the person that your friends and family need or want? How do we continue to evolve? How do we navigate life to have even deeper experiences? That's what aging should be about."
"I think it's about time things change, and it's fantastic that these behaviors are no longer being tolerated," she added. "The old hierarchy is being disassembled."
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