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Naomi Wattswas told her career could be on the downturn almost as soon as she broke through in Hollywood.
“I was told, ‘You better get a lot done because it’s all over at 40 when you become unf—able,’ And I’m like, ‘What? What does that mean exactly?’ " Watts toldEW.
Watts was 33 years old when she madeMulholland Drive.
“Then you think about it, and you go, ‘Oh, right. When you are no longer reproductive, when those organs are no longer functioning, you are not sexy, so, therefore, you are not hirable,’ " Watts added in the interview. “That just made me so mad.”
Watts is determined to help the film industry “get comfortable” with the notion of women aging as she continues topublicly speak about her own experience with menopause.
“It’s such an awkward conversation because, from day one, we begin our aging process. It’s something we just all have to get comfortable with and women are asked to do it more than men,” Watts toldEWwhen asked how Hollywood could do better to “allow women to age like human beings.”
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“We don’t talk about a man aging hardly ever. We don’t talk about his gray hair. In fact, if we do, it’s like, ‘Oh, he gets more handsome, more desirable, more powerful.’ And why is he powerful?Because he’s accumulated experiences,” Watts said.
“Well, it should be the same for women,” she added. “We’ve got important and powerful experiences as well at this age that we should feel proud of.”
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In June, Watts got candid onInstagramabout menopause, admitting to her followers that the word used to “freak her out” before realizing it’s “just a natural phase of life.”
“When I was in my late 30s, I was finally ready to start thinking about creating a family. Then the M word swiftly blew my doors down, it felt like a head-on collision with a Mack truck. 🚚💥,” Watts wrote alongside a selfie.
Naomi Watts.Naomi Watts/Instagram
“How could I figure this out when no one was talking? I was earlier to it than my peers,” she continued. “My mentors and mum didn’t seem up for discussing it, I didn’t know how to ask for help and they didn’t know how to provide…. even doctors had little to say.”
“It’s oddly like an unwritten code of silence: women should suck it up and cope, because that’s how generations passed have done it,” she added.
source: people.com
