Helena Bonham Carter is tired of having to say sorry for being old. This week, on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, the British actress said, “It’s all about thou must not age.” “Every magazine, Instagram, or anything else.” The word “old” is insulting. We’re all so obsessed with it that it’s almost bad for us. “Because it’s embarrassing, it’s almost a crime.”
She thinks that at 56, she is past her “prime” and would never want to go back to her younger years.
“It would be great if we could change the rules of society and say, “Come on, we’re in our prime in our 60s.” “We’ve got everything, and we’re coming into our power,” she said. “At the end of the day, you can become very interested in something.” We think we can control how we look, but we can’t. “There are so many other things we should worry about.”
Bonham Carter likes to live in the moment. She admitted that she was “certainly the cliché” who said she was “far happier than I was when I was younger.” “I don’t ever want to return there.”
Even though I may not be as pretty on the outside, I think that makes me more interesting and dynamic on the inside.
She plays the Crossroads actress, who was fired from the soap opera when she was in her early 60s and is now the main character in the ITV show Nolly.
She is glad that streaming platforms have made it possible for older women to get more jobs. “So far, so good,” Bonham Carter told the BBC, referring to how things are going. I thought, “God, I’m so lucky to get this part at my age,” because Nolly is one of the best parts I’ve ever been given.
She continued, “Then I had the painful realisation that I even had to apologise for my age.” It’s getting better, really, it is. After all, we live in the age of TV, and I think that the many streaming services are making things better for everyone. These things are being made.
