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Julianne Moore Really Wants Everyone to Stop Obsessing Over Aging: “It’s a Privilege!”

At 56 years old, Julianne Moore is healthy, happy, and enjoying continued career success. So, she doesn’t really understand why everyone continues to obsess over aging in Hollywood — and would really love if everyone, frankly, just stopped commenting on it in a negative light.

“I mean, let’s not talk about this idea of, ‘Oh no! I’m going to be 40!’ You could be dead. So enjoy it. It’s a privilege to age,” the Oscar winner recently told InStyle magazine. “Even in scripts, they’ll refer to a character as ‘aging.’ Well… everyone is aging. In literature and in movies, when people try to stop the process, it always ends in disaster. I think it’s really important to be where you are.”

julianne moore 'still alice'

Julianne in 2014’s Still Alice. (Photo Credit: Getty Images)

As she’s gotten older, Julianne admitted she’s also learned to take much more time prepping for her film roles. “The older I get, I find, the more I prepare. I thought when I was younger that I was prepared. But it pales in comparison to the amount I do now. Maybe being young, you think, ‘Well, I know how to do this!’ and the older you get, the more you realize that you don’t know anything,” she confessed.

“Now I realize I locate the characters within myself. I don’t have to suppress or get rid of anything that’s mine; I just figure out what to amplify. But you do have to access all your emotional function to get there,” Julianne continued.

One role Julianne took extra care preparing for was her portrayal of a professor diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease just shortly after her 50th birthday in 2014’s Still Alice. “[Writer Lisa Genova] made the character 50 and not 80, because that way you’re able to talk about Alzheimer’s as an actual disease, not a condition of aging,” she exclusively told Closer Weekly back in October 2014. “What was wonderful was how generous people were in sharing their [stories] with me.”

Check out the gallery to see more stars who’ve embraced aging!