Gillian Anderson had an epiphany that changed how she saw aging: ‘Why waste time?'
Gillian Anderson does not mince words. Speaking about wellness culture and the pressure to self-optimize on the podcast 'How To Fail' in 2023, she said in a calm, matter of fact and confident tone: 'I realized that anytime somebody tells me to do something, I'm going to say f—k off.' In a culture where women still feel obliged to be people pleasers, the 56-year-old actress makes being forthright look easy.
When we spoke over video call from the Cannes Film Festival, where Anderson was attending L'Oréal Paris' Lights on Women's Worth Award, I asked if she's always been able to set boundaries. 'I was quite a rebellious teenager,' she said. Yet it wasn't until her 40s that she felt able to speak her mind without fear, without worrying about what other people thought. 'It was almost like something that pre-existed but I didn't realize how valuable it was, and that it was something that I could actually vocalize and delight in,' she said. 'There was something that felt really good about having that.'
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Toronto Star
8 hours ago
- Toronto Star
Gillian Anderson had an epiphany that changed how she saw aging: ‘Why waste time?'
Gillian Anderson does not mince words. Speaking about wellness culture and the pressure to self-optimize on the podcast 'How To Fail' in 2023, she said in a calm, matter of fact and confident tone: 'I realized that anytime somebody tells me to do something, I'm going to say f—k off.' In a culture where women still feel obliged to be people pleasers, the 56-year-old actress makes being forthright look easy. When we spoke over video call from the Cannes Film Festival, where Anderson was attending L'Oréal Paris' Lights on Women's Worth Award, I asked if she's always been able to set boundaries. 'I was quite a rebellious teenager,' she said. Yet it wasn't until her 40s that she felt able to speak her mind without fear, without worrying about what other people thought. 'It was almost like something that pre-existed but I didn't realize how valuable it was, and that it was something that I could actually vocalize and delight in,' she said. 'There was something that felt really good about having that.'
Toronto Sun
11-06-2025
- Toronto Sun
'WORST JOKE IN THE WORLD': Halle Berry thought her sex life was dead after menopause
Jury Member Halle Berry attends the closing ceremony red carpet at the 78th annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 24, 2025 in Cannes, France. Photo by Vittorio Zunino Celotto / Getty Images Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page. Halle Berry feared her sex life was over after menopause — which she began just as she met partner Van Hunt. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account The 58-year-old actress thought the intimate side of her life was gone forever — but admits that was due to knowing little to nothing about menopause, which she began four years ago, when doctors failed to prepare her for this stage in her life. The Catwoman star was on a panel alongside Christina Aguilera at a Bare It All event centering on women's health on Monday, where she explained that she wasn't properly educated about menopause, according to People magazine. 'I had no idea that I was in menopause at this time of my life,' Berry said. 'I was 54 years old, no doctor that I had had even mentioned the fact that I would enter into menopause,' she continued. 'So I had this unrealistic idea that maybe I would — OK, don't laugh — but maybe I would just skip it.' Berry explained that she started struggling with vaginal atrophy, which happens when a woman's estrogen level drops, after menopause, and is when the vagina becomes shorter, less elastic and drier, according to the Canadian Menopause Society. The timing wasn't ideal since she had just met her partner Van Hunt. RECOMMENDED VIDEO 'I was really afraid at that time that I would never enjoy that part of my femininity again and that I had lost that,' Berry admitted. 'I finally found my person and now the worst joke in the world happened to me.' Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. She explained that she went 'down a rabbit hole' to try to figure out what was happening. 'If my doctor didn't recognize this as a symptom of menopause and nobody ever talked to me about menopause, I can only imagine that there are other women out there, probably millions of women, that know nothing whose doctors know equally nothing,' Berry continued. The X-Men actress has since founded her own women's wellness company, Respin Health, and collaborated with the CEOs of Joylux, a wellness company that offers women's intimate care products. 'They serviced my very first needs when I realized that I was in menopause, they helped me get my intimacy back and my sex life back,' she explained. Read More This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Ultimately, Berry wants do normalize the topic of women's health, menopause and all the wonderful and not-so-wonderful things that come with being a woman. 'It takes being bold, talking about it, being loud about it, not being afraid to talk about it, not feeling shame, giving other women permission to talk about it,' she said. 'Talking about it with our partners, talking about it with our bosses at work, with our children, deciding that we're worth it, deciding that we have been overlooked for far too long, right?' Berry added: We can no longer be silent on this issue. It's a health issue. It's a human rights issue, and we need to fight for that.' NHL Celebrity Toronto Maple Leafs Music Editorial Cartoons
Global News
08-06-2025
- Global News
Montreal actor focused on directing but has ideas for ‘White Lotus' after breakout performance
Since her breakout role in Season 3 of HBO's hit dramedy White Lotus, acting offers have been pouring in for Charlotte Le Bon. But for now, the Montreal native is just not interested. 'Making films is my main focus more than acting, to be honest,' Le Bon said during a sit-down interview in Toronto Thursday. Le Bon recently returned from the Cannes Film Festival, where she held meetings in search of a financing partner for her sophomore feature — a still-untitled Montreal-shot drama exploring themes of loss. 'It's autobiographique,' says the bilingual actor, reluctant to reveal too much. 'It's a very, very personal movie and I think the goal is to try to make a very light-hearted movie on grief. It's a challenge, but that's what I'm aiming for.' Story continues below advertisement The Montreal-based Le Bon was in town for Bell Media's 2025-26 programming showcase, where Etalk hosts interviewed her during a splashy event for media buyers about the last season of The White Lotus, which streams on Crave. In Mike White's eat-the-rich anthology series she plays Chloe, a socially savvy French-Canadian expat living in Thailand with her much older boyfriend, and the series' main antagonist, Greg, who now goes by 'Gary.' She's seemingly unaware of Greg's history: in Season 2, he pulled off a plot to murder his wife Tanya, played by Jennifer Coolidge, in order to inherit her wealth. Le Bon says she was ready to take a hiatus from acting when she was offered the White Lotus role. Though she'd built a successful career — with roles opposite Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the 2015 biographical drama The Walk and Christian Bale in the 2016 war epic The Promise — her passion had shifted to working behind the camera. Her 2023 horror-romance Falcon Lake, which she directed and co-wrote, premiered at Cannes to strong critical acclaim. 4:29 Eric reviews The Promise 'I was thinking about taking a break from acting because I was like, 'Oh, I don't know if I still like it.' I was just asking myself some questions about it… I sometimes played characters that were not really inspiring for me for some reason,' she says. Story continues below advertisement 'And then White Lotus arrived and I was like, 'There's no way I can not do this. It's just an amazing opportunity'… Between the moment where I sent the self-tape and the moment I was in the plane flying to Thailand, there were probably like 10 days.' Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy Le Bon says the experience of being part of such a pop-culture juggernaut was hard to wrap her head around. 'It's kind of overwhelming when you're taking part in such an important thing in culture. Even when it started to come out, when I started to see memes on it on social media, it was really exciting,' she says. While acting isn't her current focus, Le Bon says she would be down to return for Season 4 — and has some ideas about how it could play out. 'If their relationship is based on true love, which I think it is, then maybe she'll come back with Greg, because Greg has to come back, for sure,' she says. Le Bon muses that Chloe could be Greg's accomplice or even the one who serves him his inevitable comeuppance. 'She could either become Greg's ally and they can be like a duo of villains, or she can maybe be the one who will create the karma for Greg. Maybe she'll give it to him,' she says. Story continues below advertisement 'He has to get it at some point, so we'll see what happens.' 2:07 The Canadian composer behind 'The White Lotus' soundtrack While Chloe's relationship with Greg may seem transactional on the surface, Le Bon argues the two share a deeper 'understanding' of one another. 'I think what she likes in this relationship is she thinks she's found a way to be free… just by spending a lot of money and partying and having sex with whoever she wants,' Le Bon says. 'I think they find an agreement by the end of the season where it's clear that's her intention and maybe he can take part in this and have fun with it as well.' If that setup sounds peculiar, Le Bon says that's just the kind of thing that interests her. Story continues below advertisement 'There needs to be a singular aspect to a part that really inspires me in order for me to move my butt and be an actress again,' she says. 'It needs to be weird.'
