News feed
“I’ve been doing this for a while, so I’ve been very fortunate to work with quite a few female directors – Angelica Huston and Diane Keaton – just to name a few,” Andie MacDowell exclusively tells GRAZIA on a Zoom call from Cannes Film Festival in France. “But that is an unusual accomplishment for me. We just don’t have the numbers. They keep saying we have a lot of women here, but we have five female directors out of 21 directors and until we have a ratio that is more balanced, we’re struggling.”
Known for her roles in Groundhog Day, Footloose and more recently alongside her daughter Margaret Qualley in the Netflix series Maid, MacDowell has appeared on the silver screen since 1984. The 64-year-old first attended the lauded Festival de Cannes in 1995 when she appeared alongside Keaton for the premiere of Unstrung Heroes. 27 years later, she had returned to hero fellow women in film.
Following the Lights On Women Award in Cannes last week – an initiative launched by L’Oreal Paris to recognise female filmmakers – MacDowell spoke to GRAZIA on the strides still needed for an industry still dominated by men. I asked the actress what she was most excited for this new generation of women. She was careful with her response, instead adjusting my question with what she “hoped” for the future.
“I hope… I think that we have so many restrictions, women have been oppressed for so long and it’s in our DNA that we break out of that. That we grow out of those restrictions and that tendency to placate ourselves, to be less than in any way, any shape, any form, that includes ageing and that we can give ourselves freedom to be just like a man.”
This sentiment was reflected as MacDowell discussed her incredible salt-and-pepper locks. On the red carpet for the premiere of Mother and Son last week, the L’Oreal Paris spokeswoman stepped out (alongside the ethereal Helen Mirren no less) in an archival Dior gown from 2018 and her signature curls. It was just 12 months ago that the actress debuted her natural colour on the same red carpet, in what she described as something she has “always wanted”.
The decision to transition to her current look was first sparked in 2020 where the absence of salons in lockdown meant she embraced her silvery regrowth. MacDowell noted that she never knew her mother at the same age – she passed away when MacDowell was just 23 – so her colour inspiration came from her father.
“I have this really deep feeling that we deserve to feel exactly like a man.”
“He represented what I wanted to look like and he had beautiful salt-and-pepper hair and I see myself like that, she recalled. “My daughters kept telling me, ‘You look so beautiful, you’ve got keep this, you look bad ass.’ No one has ever told me I look “bad ass”. I felt like it was the right time, I just turned 64, and I thought of my future and where I am and who I am.”
MacDowell shares three children, Margaret, Rainey and Justin, with second husband Paul Qualley. Her youngest, daughter Margaret, is following in the footsteps of her on-screen greatness after sky-rocketing to fame in the Quentin Tarantino film Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood. The 27-year-old was critically acclaimed for her lead role in Netflix drama Maid in 2021 and attended Cannes Film Festival this month for her performance in Stars At Noon.
“I see a lot of myself in her. You know, that she’s a creative being, she’s highly creative. She’s very professional, she takes her job very serious. A lot of things. But I was able to give her freedom,” the 64-year-old notes. “I wasn’t given a lot of freedom – I was raised in an environment that was very conservative and reserved and the influences around me were very strict and I was fearful to explore different characters because of that and I helped her feel free.”
She continued, “I didn’t want her to feel restricted like I was. Not that I can take credit for what she is doing because my gosh, I don’t know, she is much braver than I ever was. But I know I played a part in that. That braveness, that sense of security with herself and freedom to explore anything without question. She’s doing it.”
In many ways it is the lessons that MacDowell learnt growing up in a “conservative” household that informed how she raised her children. While the Green Card star admits she wouldn’t have listened the her own advice at the same age, she will continue to fight for change and freedom. Both within her family and, Hollywood.
“I really worked hard on having my girls love and accept ourselves, love their bodies, their shape, their form and I’m still fighting to love my body, my shape, my form. It’s not an easy thing to do. We feel reprimanded by society constantly and I’m still fighting for that.”
