In an interview with 60 Minutes Australia, actress and writer Justine Bateman discussed her take on women aging in Hollywood and said she’ll never get cosmetic work done on herself. Instead of worrying about her looks, she suggests that aging is proof of her authority in life.
She was famous before her brother, Jason
Justine Bateman, older sister to Ozark actor Jason Bateman, is best known for her longtime portrayal of Mallory Keaton on the 1980s sitcom, Family Ties. The series ran for seven seasons between 1982 and 1989. For her work on the show, Bateman earned the Young Artist Award for Best Young Actress in a Television Comedy Series in 1985.
Bateman went on to star in a number of movies and other television series, including the 1996 American adaptation of Men Behaving Badly and the 2008 smash comedy-drama, Desperate Housewives. She later worked as a director and producer and has also turned her attention to writing and clothing design.
Bateman recalls her first time seeing comments about her appearance
For much of her life, Bateman was unaware of public speculation about her appearance. Naturally, as a famous actress, she knew that such scrutiny existed, but she wasn’t really exposed to it until she was in her 40s. She came across some commentary while doing some research for her first book, Fame: The Hijacking of Reality. It truly surprised her.
“I needed to Google something to do a little research, and to remind myself of something that happened when I was famous, so I … Googled my name, ‘Justine Bateman,’ and an autocomplete came up which was ‘looks old,’” she explained. “I was only 42 at the time and I was like, ‘What?’ And I looked at the pictures that they had as evidence, and I couldn’t see what they were talking about.”
She believes her face shows how she’s changed as a person
Bateman believes that whatever aging appears on her face is a reward for the life she has lived. “I think I look rad,” she explained. “I think my face represents who I am. I like it, and so that’s basically the end of the road.”
She will not give in to pressure to get cosmetic surgery because she appreciates that she’s become a different person from who she was in her younger days. In that way, her face should have changed. “I like looking in the mirror and seeing that evidence,” Bateman said.
Commenting on the entertainment world’s overwhelming obsession with appearance, she said, “Hollywood is a business, a film business, a TV business … so they’re going to sell you as an audience, whatever they think you want to buy. If everyone decides they want to see people with purple faces, then every actor is going to have a purple face.”
When asked whether aging can be beautiful, Bateman said bluntly, “I just don’t give a [care].”
There have been times when she’s questioned her appearance
Bateman’s confidence in her appearance as she’s grown older hasn’t been without some doubts. She admitted that there have been moments in her life when she wondered what she’d look like if she did undergo cosmetic procedures.
“If I just had a lower face lift, I would get rid of this skin that catches the light … or this that’s hanging over the eyelid, you can get that removed, sure you can do all of that,” she explained. However, she feels there’s more to life than just worrying about one’s appearance.
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Bateman explained that she feels sad for women who spend all their time worrying about their appearance. “I feel sad that they’re just not enjoying life,” she said. “I feel sad that they are distracted from the things they’re meant to do in life, with this consuming idea that they’ve got to fix their face before anything else can happen.”