Virginia Madsen on Beauty, Botox, and Voting
From:
Lauren Barth
104 days 9 hours 38 minutes ago
Virginia Madsen is many things. A strong mother. A renowned actress. A Botox fan. And a women’s advocate. We caught up with the well-rounded, witty, and intelligent Virgina and talked work, beauty, and freedom of expression.
How did you become involved with the League of Women Voters?
I had been working with Allergen who’s sponsoring us and makes Botox Cosmetic, and had been going across the United States last year doing a safety campaign about seeing your doctor and being safe in the use of the product. And we traveled around with a doctor. It was an interesting experience. And as we started talking about things like Botox and why do we have to be embarrassed, and why we feel we have to be secretive about it. We started talking about all these women’s issues about beauty and health and it would almost always turn political about what our voice means as women.
We’re really talking about the total woman. Beauty, brains, our bodies, our minds, our spirits. We’re so complex, women. These are all the different things we’re concerned about and involved with. We can’t be categorized. So that’s how that came about. And I was very happy to do a PSA for them to encourage people to vote, and my mom was really proud of me for doing that.
More women voted in the primaries than ever before. Why do you think that is?
Women have always had a say but we haven’t always been allowed to vote. And it’s really important for us to remember that as women. Women were arrested for trying to vote. We had to fight for years and years before we were allowed into this process. So on principle alone, we need to register and vote. And there are many reasons why women are involved in the process. What’s exciting today is that there are so many more women this year. And the problems and the conflicts have come right to everyone’s doorstep. Women are concerned about the future. Women are raising families and corporations. They’re out in the work force as never before. And of course we would be involved in the political process. We couldn’t not be.
You mentioned Botox Cosmetic. You’re very outspoken about using Botox. Why have you chosen to be public with your decision, and why do you think other women are embarrassed about it?
It is a medical procedure, and I do understand that some people would want to be more discreet or private. I was saying it because somebody had asked, and I didn’t have any problem with sharing it. I like the results it has. But then I became sort of a curiosity because I didn’t have a frozen face and everyone wondered why. But they weren’t asking about my doctor, so then I felt I had to talk about it more because I want people to understand that this is not a step you take lightly. This is not something you do at a party. It’s something it should be an educated choice. We need to educate ourselves before we make choices like Botox Cosmetic, like diet, like exercise, and even voting. It’s important for us to be educated.
And Allergen had the idea of doing a safety campaign to encourage this message. I had a lot of people thank me for making it easier to talk about. It’s not embarrassing. Why should we be embarrassed about something we do for beauty? It’s really curious and sexist. And it’s so antiquated this idea that something we do for our looks is pure vanity. This is about choices we have as women, and the choices we make. The look on the outside and the way we feel on the inside, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
Basically it comes down to the freedom to express yourself. How do you express yourself in your day-to-day life?
Well, I have a teenager so I regularly express myself. No, it’s just always been a part of my life and how I was raised. I think it’s important to encourage young women to have a voice and not be afraid to express yourself and to not dumb it down for the classroom. It’s really pretty wonderful when I see that things have changed for my son and for the young women in his life – how much they really do see each other as equal but different. I was definitely not considered equal when I was his age. And I had big boobs, and that made it even worse.
We are so blessed. We are fortunate in this country to be able to express ourselves the way we do as women. We are so fortunate to be raised in this society, and we should never take that for granted, but we do everyday. I mean every time a girl goes out in jeans and a tee-shirt, she takes for granted how she got to wear the outfit. I remember I was not allowed to wear pants to school. And that was the 1970s. And it was because of a women’s movement that I could be more liberated. And there’s a lot of girls don’t even know who Susan B. Anthony is. They didn’t know that we didn’t get to vote before. So, it’s important to know our history and where we came from.
How do you stay empowered when it comes to your career?
Well, I’m smarter now. I’m more confident because I’m older so I’m not going to do what somebody thinks what I should do because it’s the popular choice. I’m going to do what fulfills me. I’m going to make the choices that I want to make. When I was younger, I was so cautious. Sometimes I was empowered, but sometimes I wasn’t. I was self conscious about a lot of things and would allow people to manipulate me … And so naturally as you get older you become more empowered. You have to keep working at it all the time – empowering yourself.
Was there a turning point in your career when you finally felt you were in control?
That year when I got nominated for the Academy Award – that process of that campaign was so empowering . It wasn’t just because it was a lot of adoration. People really appreciated my story. And that meant a lot to me, and I gained a lot of confidence by telling my story and by hearing other people’s stories.
Finally, what do you have coming up?
I have a movie opening fourth of July weekend called Diminished Capacity. A comedy that came out at the Sundance Film Festival - it’s such a sweet movie. And then next year, two bigger movies: a big haunted house movie and then I just finished shooting Amelia with Hilary Swank playing Amelia Earhart – talk about empowering women. This movie is going to be important to all these little girls. It’s such a wonderful story.
*WireImage
