Andie MacDowell Doesn't Take Her Hit Series The Way Home for Granted: 'It's Nice at My Age' (Exclusive)

Andie MacDowell tries to adjust her camera for a Zoom call.

“Damn,” she says in her Southern drawl with a playful sigh as she studies the screen through her glasses. The actress and former model, 66, is home in South Carolina for the holidays after wrapping up the third season of Hallmark’s hit drama The way home.

MacDowell plays Del Landry in ‘The Road Home’.

Hallmark Media/Photographer: Peter Stranks

“I’m so excited when I get on set,” she tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue. “It’s nice at my age and after so much time to have that feeling of joy. I’m very aware of that, so I try to share it and tell everyone how happy we are.”

Despite four decades as an actress, MacDowell is the first to insist that she got lucky. “It’s a miracle I made it,” she says. “I’m not going to take anything away from myself, but I had to overcome some really big obstacles.”

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Raised in South Carolina, MacDowell was already a successful model (she is L’Oréal’s longest-serving spokeswoman) when she landed the groundbreaking role of Jane in 1984. Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apesbut the criticism was harsh. “I could have easily given up,” she says. “This business is really cruel. The things they wrote about me were just horrible.”

MacDowell with Hugh Grant in ‘Four Weddings and a Funeral’.

Christophel Collection / Alamy Stock Photo

Still, the critics only strengthened MacDowell’s determination to “prove to the casting directors that I’m not trash, that I’m valuable,” she says. Her career trajectory changed when she was cast as a sexually passive housewife in 1989. Sex, lies and video tapesstarring James Spader, and the film spawned more memorable leads in 90s classics such as Four weddings and one funeral and Groundhog day.

Rainey Qualley, honoree Andie MacDowell and Margaret Qualley attend the National Women’s History Museum’s 8th Annual Women Making History Awards on March 8, 2020.

Rachel Murray/Getty

In the years that followed, she balanced her career with motherhood, raising three children with ex-husband Paul Qualley, whom she divorced in 1999. While her son Justin, 38, opted for a life out of the spotlight, daughters Rainey Qualley, 35, and Margaret Qualley , 30, followed in their mom’s footsteps, and Andie starred with Margaret in 2021 Girl.

MacDowell with Bill Murray in ‘Groundhog Day’.

Columbia/courtesy of the Everett Collection

On her own, MacDowell has become an anti-aging advocate in Hollywood, drawing on her years of wisdom and embracing her silver hair, which she stopped dyeing during COVID. Still, he has moments of doubt when he thinks about his chosen career path.

Andie MacDowell knows there wouldn’t be as much ‘interest and curiosity’ in her gray hair if she were a man

“I’m still struggling,” she explains. “Sometimes I’m really hard on myself. I am my absolute worst critic. But sometimes I feel like I’m flying.”

The way home now streaming on Hallmark+ and Peacock.

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Source: HIS Education