“I think it’s dangerous to tell women, ‘You can’t look like you’re not 22 anymore because I don’t know how to accept that,'” the actress said in a recent podcast appearance
Jennifer Love Hewitt gets real about aging in the spotlight.
The 9-1-1 star, 44, appeared on the podcast In you with Michael Rosenbaum earlier this month and dismissed claims she looked “unrecognizable” after debuting a dark bob to her Instagram followers this fall.
“Getting old in Hollywood is really hard,” Hewitt told host Michael Rosenbaum. “It’s really hard because you can’t do anything right.”
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The actress went on to talk about the backlash and attention that followed her post-hairdo selfie.
“I was doing my hair and I didn’t have any makeup on, so I put on a filter,” she said. “And it was just a filter that looked nice in the salon light at the time.”
“I didn’t really think about it,” she added.
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Hewitt said that after she posted the photo, “a bunch of people said, ‘Jennifer Love Hewitt is unrecognizable.'”
“And then the second place was like, ‘She’s unrecognizable and that’s why she went for filters because she doesn’t want us to know how bad she actually looks now in her 40s,'” she recalled. “And I said, ‘This is crazy, isn’t it?'”
Jennifer Love Hewitt 2019
Chelsea Guglielmino/WireImage
To poke fun at the haters, Hewitt said she posted more photos, this time with “exaggerated, crazy” filters on – and was met with even more heat.
“I was like, ‘All natural, no filter,’ like I was trying to make fun of it, and then they attacked me for it and they said, ‘Well, now he’s just defending himself,'” she said. “And I realized, I said, ‘I can’t do anything right.'”
After Rosenbaum asked her why she pays so much attention to people “who have nothing better to do than crush you,” the actress replied, “Because it’s a lie to pretend we don’t.”
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The Criminal minds The actress also acknowledged the positive attention she’s been getting, telling the host: “I will say that most people have been very nice to me.”
“They grew up with me. Now they look like me,” she continued. “We all get wrinkles and maybe we’re in menopause and who knows what else is in store.”
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Jennifer Love Hewitt 1997
Ron Galella, Ltd./Collection of Ron Galella via Getty Images
But Hewitt said she can’t ignore those who make negative comments about her appearance because of her daughter Autumn. (She shares Autumn, 10, as well as sons Atticus, 8, and Aidan, 2, with husband Brian Hallisay.)
The I know what you did last summer star said “the only reason these people bother me” is because “I’m the mother of a little girl.”
“It’s dangerous what we’re putting on people,” Hewitt said. “I think it’s dangerous to say to women, ‘You can’t look like you’re not 22 anymore because I don’t know how to accept that.'”
“Because I’m 44 years old and I look like this,” she added.
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Hewitt also reflected on her young age, saying, “At 23, 24, 25, I didn’t feel confident.”
“I felt watched. I felt like I had to be everything to everything all the time,” she continued. “They called me sexy before I even understood what it meant to be sexy. Like, I was 17 on the cover Maximand I had no idea why I was on the cover Maxim.”
Hewitt added: “That girl was so insecure and so confused and she was doing her best.”
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Source: HIS Education