On the heels of the brouhaha surrounding Renee Zellweger’s new, more youthful look, Julia Roberts said in an interview that for older women in Hollywood, not getting a plastic surgery touchup is a “big risk.”
“By Hollywood standards, I guess I’ve already taken a big risk in not having had a facelift, but I’ve told Lancome that I want to be an aging model – so they have to keep me for at least five more years until I’m over 50,” the Pretty Woman star told Mail on Sunday’s YOU magazine. (Though from the outraged reaction to changes in Zellweger’s face and accusations that she got drastic plastic surgery, it’s just as risky to look too young.)
The 47-year old mother of three said that when she’s not on set, she rarely worries about how she looks. “Mornings are a high-humor scene. You just have to make sure everyone looks and smells clean. That’s all that matters. If I actually manage to get my teeth brushed and lip balm on, I’m good.”
She also notes that her success as a movie star means she doesn’t have to worry about some of the things other working moms have to deal with. “I often think about the reality of my life versus a mother who, say, lives in Kansas City and is struggling to pick up the kids when she gets off work, or who doesn’t get to choose not to go to work because she wants to stay at home with the kids.”
“Those mothers are my real-life heroes, and they include my girlfriends, who do this with joy and grace and with full-time jobs. I don’t have to worry about it and I’m grateful for that.”
Roberts, who won a Best Actress Oscar for Erin Brockovich in 2001, lives with her family in New Mexico when she’s not filming in Hollywood.
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Write to Charlotte Alter at charlotte.alter@time.com