At 66, Andie MacDowell Discusses Weight, Body Image
Andie MacDowell detailed a recent experience in which she didn’t fit into a dress for a red carpet event.
Instead of trying to lose weight or force herself into the garment, she opted to wear something else.
She is proud of her “great body,” she said, and no longer believes it should be changed to wear a certain look.
Andie MacDowell is just a woman trying to dress comfortably and stylishly like the rest of us. At 66, she places emphasis on comfort—in fact, she had the most empowering reaction to not fitting into a dress for a recent red carpet event and resolved not to put aesthetics over her own ease ever again.
The actress could barely zip up a dress she was slated to wear, she recently told Glamour, and she had it on for 10 minutes before deciding to take it off. Those few restrictive minutes resulted in pain that radiated through her rib cage that night. McDowell said she woke up the following morning with “newfound clarity”: That she has “a great body” and doesn’t need to be forced into a garment or changed for a look.
Glamour did not name the event MacDowell described, however, in November, The Way Home star shared a similar story with People while attending L’Oréal Paris’ Women of Worth Celebration as a brand ambassador.
“I did a fitting and the dress was really tight around my waist. It looks so good, but I woke up and I just knew it was not the right thing for me to do,” she recalled. “I wanted to wear something that was comfortable. And, of course, immediately I shamed myself for not being able to fit into this dress.”
She blamed the shame on unrealistic standards placed on women everywhere, but especially in Hollywood. “It’s this expectation, like you see in The Substance, to be something that you can no longer be and that was easier at a certain time in your life, but I can’t,” she said. “I’m too old to starve myself for five pounds nonstop. I just can’t do it anymore.”
She continued: “I used to live in Montana. When I’m at home, I feel skinny. It’s only when I come out here that I feel like the bar is raised so high and the expectations are beyond anything that anybody can accomplish unless you’re completely devoted to being skinny.”
And McDowell isn’t interested in wasting time that could be dedicated to doing more fulfilling things. “I want to learn about birds and I want to walk on the beach and I want to be smart and I want to read books,” she said. “I want to work out, but I don’t want that to be the only thing. I’d rather have the five pounds on me and wear something that fits.”
In her interview with Glamour, the mom of three shared an example of how deeply rooted body image-related pressures became early in her career. After she had her daughter Rainey, her breast milk had come in and her “tits were gigantic,” she recalled. When she showed up on set for a photo shoot, the photographer pulled her aside and postponed the job because she looked “matronly,” she said. And there it was, the nagging need to shrink that would still loom years later.
“I told him I would lose weight,” she said. “So I left, and I tried to start losing weight.”
Now, MacDowell proudly embraces her body and the “matronly” title. In fact, she wants to take the word back and redefine it. “Why can’t I be matronly in a gorgeous, powerful, respectful, glamorous way?” she said.
Great question. And the answer is, she can.
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