38 year-old actress and mother Cate Blanchett doesn’t mince words when it comes to explaining how she feels about her fellow thespians and others who undergo plastic surgery. She says that she doesn’t find it attractive when people get work done and that their motivation is “self obsession” and “fear.”
The 38-year-old actress – who recently gave birth to her third child with husband Andrew Upton – hates the idea of plastic surgery, and is happy to have some lines on her face.
She said: “For me, I think what will be sexy in 50 years time will be wrinkles. Look at a man or a woman in their 50s and all I see when they have brushed their years away with surgery is self-obsession and fear. That’s not particularly attractive.”
[From Bang! Media via Gossip Rocks]
I found this same quote from Cate in an article from September, 2007 published in Australia’s Courier Mail so she said it at least 8 or 9 months ago. Interestingly enough, Cate also is a spokesperson for skincare line SK-II. She says she uses one of their products, a moisturizing skin mask made of cotton, every morning while she makes her sons’ breakfast. Interesting that Cate calls plastic surgery “self obsession and fear” but that she admits using a mask that costs at least $15 per application
Cate Blanchett is shown at the Launch of the ‘Surviving Australia’ exhibition at the Australian Museum in Sydney on 6/12/08, thanks to WENN.
I disagree. I think there is a HUGE difference between a good skin care regimen and getting plastic surgery. The side effect of a good skin care regimen is going to be fewer wrinkles regardless of if the moisturizers say they are anti-wrinkle or not.
Comparing the two is like comparing putting on sunscreen to getting a chemical peel. The two just aren’t comparable even if the results are similar.
Totally agree with cmoody, they’re completely different things. Bit of a sweeping statement, this. People have plastic surgery and other procedures for all sorts of different reasons and to lump them all in together is just stupid.
Yeah, Team Blanchett. Good skin care vs. The Cult of Plasticity… the victor for me is always good (sometimes costly) skin care.
I respect Cate and her philosophy regarding plastic surgery. She is a fine actress, and her morals & values are a needed virtue in demented Hollywood.
Good skin care is good sense. My sister is a huge plastic surgery fan and looks pretty odd as a result – her tattooed permanent eyebrows were applied slightly off the mark and the arch is kind of clownish. The face-lift combined with the overly arched brows, botox injections and collagen lips have given her a totally bizarre appearance, but she’s convinced she looks great. Her boobs are almost Dolly Parton-esque. This is a woman who is almost 60, was out pounding the pavement for women’s rights back in the day, and I gotta wonder wtf happened?
Easy for her to say, when you’re that freaking beautiful.
But I do agree with cmoody.
I agree with CMoody. There’s a huge philosophical difference between a high priced face cream and injecting botchilism into your face. I don’t care what anyone says if you accept your wrinkles society will then follow suit; no apologies..it’s called having strength of character and growing old with grace.
Clearly you aren’t a woman in your 30s or early 40s, or have never been at the mercy of hormones, Celebitchy. Hormones during a woman’s later reproductive years change with the wind and wreck skin faster (esp. on the face) than years of smoking, though smoking leaves a face looking like prune. (Note to Granny Freeze on that fact!) Heaven help those women who have children in their late 30s and early 40s. It only compounds what’s already going to happen on its own. That’s one of the reasons having babies so late in life is extremely hard on a woman’s physique. Do some basic research before you post crap like this, Celebitchy. You only look like a douche when you don’t.
I agree with Cate. And people who get all that shit done to themselves don’t look better…they just look like plastic surgery victims.
Here’s the thing. If there is some thing you want to “fix” i think that’s fine. A good friend of mine had breast reduction, another had implants, another had a nose job. None of them however, were generally unhappy with their overall appearance. If you are doing it to “look young” there is your mistake. You may look 38 but you ARE 60 no matter what. The clearest giveaway is your hands–not much they can do there. With all this said, my grandmother is 94 and looks amazing I asked her when i was 20 what her secret is and she said “moisturize and stay out of the sun” I took that advice to heart and it has really paid off. So, if you are young moisturize ( nutrogena eye cream!) and wear sunscreen, you will not regret it.
Lilly, sorry but I have 2 sisters who had kids in their late 30s. Guess what? They have a clean lifestyle (no excessive drinking, no cigs, no drugs and use sunscreen, good diet.. moderate exercise) and they look good. It’s lifestyle and genetics. You’re saying Celebitchy looks like a ‘douche’ (really overused word, let’s retire that one) but you make sweeping generalizations that make you look ignorant. Now go take some hormone replacement pills!
I really don’t understand what Lilly’s criticism is. My point here may have been too vague, but I’m with Geronimo in that you can’t put all people who chose plastic surgery into one category. And some of you think *all* plastic surgery is bad, because that’s the only kind you notice. You can get a good facelift and not a lot of maintenance and it settles and doesn’t look noticeable.
When Cate says she loves this wrinkle-reducing mask but that surgery comes from being self-obsessed or fearful of aging, I disagree. I think it comes from the same place for a lot of people that skincare does – it’s striving for beauty. Yes it’s a very different and more invasive option, but that doesn’t make people who chose it any more fallible and “wrong” than those who don’t.
She’s an actress who gets hired because she’s slim and beautiful.
She could be 100% more talented and wouldn’t get the same jobs if she was fat and ugly.
If someone not blessed as she is by the god of genes wants to get plastic surgery – let them.
Don’t bash them just because you don’t need surgery.
It’s one thing taking care of what you got, whether it be exercize, eating right and good skin care. It’s totally different altering it with cosmetic proceedures.
She’s not speaking with people with deformities or other issues, she’s speaking of vanity proceedures.
We’ll she how she feels in about 20 years when she’s no longer considered castable or suitable to a target audience.
For every Joan River’s permanent clown face, there’s six Cher Bonos, where it’s actually helped.
A lot of people have surgery and procedures because they want to keep their beauty. Cate is an odd looking woman so she’s not going to miss the head turns of others. No one would want to come back to this world and request Blanchette’s face. No one! We’d all have other people in mind.
Just wanted to say that I agree with Celebitchy 100% on this one.
Life is not easy for those who are not born beautiful and who actually age. Skin care, sun and smoking aside, genetics do play a big role in aging skin and wrinkles.
I’m 42, and my wrinkles are still pretty minimal.
The whole point was that expensive skin care routines exploit women too. I’m a follower of Paula Begoun and think that most of the miracle products out there are worthless. They do some good – they make the companies a lot of money.
I gotta agree with Celebitchy on this one. Cate said that people who get plastic surgery are self-obsessed and afraid. So what are people who use every cream, lotion and potion in the book to minimize wrinkles and “counteract the signs of aging”? If you’re going to use Cate’s logic, they’re just as self-obsessed and afraid. The results aren’t as dramatic, but the incentive is the same. Hell, I’m 37, and I haven’t met a wrinkle-reducing eye cream or face lotion that I haven’t tried (especially if it’s on sale). Sure, I tell myself it’s all part of a healthy little “skin care routine,” but really, when it comes right down to it, it’s because I want to look as young as possible for as long as I can!
She can afford the expensive skin care products, and there is a VAST difference between that and plastic surgery. I think I’ll never be into doing it, look at all the celebs that do it and end up looking like someone punched them in the face. Why do they pay surgeons so much money to fuck up their faces anyway?!?! Cate is damn straight up right!
This isn’t even close. There is such a gulf between buying a beauty product and getting a vanity plastic surgery that it’s even wider than the Grand Canyon. Sure, both are about looking good, but that is such a reductionism, it has no discoursive value whatsoever. Showering regularly is for looking good too; and so is gettin your nose hair trimmed. By the post’s logic, people who shower regularly can’t discourage people who get vanity surgeries, or else they’re just hypocrites. Cos, you know, showering regularly is just like getting vanity plastic surgeries…
plastic surgery for wiping away years has always looked as though someone has actually stretched away the years. it screams mental imbalance, total mind control, not one thought in the head that is it’s own. creepy too.
madonna looks plain scary however many kiss up video’s to perez madonna scams to. she still has never mastered the art in hiding her scare factor. she is really scary. her muscles have been clenched for 50 years her facial skin cells ran to the dr’s screaming for the cut. from afar she has become what she dreamed of a youthful diva just escaped from her teens yet upon closer assault of the eyes she becomes he the old gay sailor that did gym.
funny not plastic.
Sorry, Celebitchy, you are completely mistaken here. It’s one thing to protect and care for what you have. It’s another to try and erase what you have.
Am I the only one who thinks someone as fair as Blanchett should have at least a bit of a forehead crease, she looks botoxed to me.
I agree with celebitchy on this one. Anti-wrinkle creams et al are less invasive then plastic surgery which has more obvious and dramatic results but all pander to the quest for youth and beauty. If you’re gonna slather on the face cream/mask to try and maintain your looks (she’s an actress and would be foolish not to) it’s not fair to blast others for doing the same although their methods might be more drastic. Problem is too many actressess nowadays go overboard. Nikki Cox is the most recent plastic surgery overkill victim that I can think of. Maybe Cate was too broad in her generalisation and she was talking more about those who overdo it. In which case she’s got a point.
CB is right. David Bowie’s facelift was done so well. Anyone have a problem with that?
plastic surgery to enhance is self-selection. and the choice is up to you.at a later time all people will have the problem it’s about wrinkles, i thin healty life is one is the best way.
Guess what? There is a difference between basic skin hygiene, i.e. a skin care regime for basic health of the largest organ of the body and plastic surgery. Plastic surgery is not done for hygienic purposes. We all cleanse and moisturize our skin to allow it to function at peak performance. Plastic surgery has nothing to do with this. Cate’s right. It stems from fear. I don’t wash my face and use a mask out of fear of getting old. It’s just part of a healthy regime.