Swansea-born Hollywood star Catherine Zeta-Jones may be one of cinema - and TV's - most successful stars having made hit films such as The Mask of Zorro, Chicago and Darling Buds of May but she also has hang ups like the rest of us. And while the 53-year-old is also regarded as one of the world's most beautiful women, she says she doesn't see it herself.
In an interview with The Telegraph she recalls the moment she auditioned for 1998 film The Mask of Zorro, which features another Welsh icon - Anthony Hopkins - and Antonio Banderas. She said: "With The Mask of Zorro, I just remember calling my mum from a payphone after the audition. There were five actresses there that I won’t name but are still very big now, and I said to my mum: 'Well if this is a beauty contest, I’m telling you, I haven’t got the part. I’ve seen the others in hair and make-up – and I haven’t got it.'"
She was, of course, wrong, and went on to have great success in both her career - and her love life, as that very film was the one in which she caught the eye of her now husband Michael Douglas. But although it has been many years since she auditioned for that role, she revealed how her physical insecurities now are less about features but stem from strength and fitness - which she keeps on top of every day.
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Having grown up in "a dancer's world where anorexia was rife" after beginning her career in the arts at just nine-years-old, she tells The Telegraph of her current routine: "I’ve got quite a few dancing injuries: my hip and my knee. But in your 50s it’s about staying active. I wake up at 5am every single day, no matter what time I go to bed, and I swim and walk a lot." She added how she is glad that platforms such as Instagram didn't exist when she was growing up and how young women have a "quest for perfection", tweaking photos with apps such as Photoshop.
The Traffic star - referred to as Cath during the interview as per her Zoom name - who herself has 4.4million followers paying attention to her regular posts - added: "I think that body dysmorphia has always been there. And we talk a lot about young women, this quest for perfection and tweaking and the use of Photoshop and filters and all that stuff, but what about my age group?
"I know people who wouldn’t even think about showing a photograph of themselves unless it had six filters on it. But no, I don’t have a problem with it [Photoshop]. Because I’m from that world and I know all about the choreography and the orchestration behind the scenes." And while that may be so, she admits: "Hey, do I sometimes say “s—t” when I look in the mirror? Yes. Because I’m 53 years old. But doesn’t every woman? And anyway I used to do that in my 20s."
During the interview, Catherine, who lives in New York, also spoke of her 22-year marriage to fellow actor "Mike" - who is 25 years her senior - about which she said: "It’s impossible for there not to be ups and downs."
She mused: "I’ve been waking up to Mike for nearly 25 years. I love being married but it’s a crazy thing when you really think about it. Will you marry me? Sure! But then you think about the Chanel purse you spent a fortune on, and actually I don’t really like it any more – I’ll put it up for resale."
Of their relationship, she said: "We’ll walk around a golf course together for four hours at a time. We have a lot of serious similarities too. We were born on the same day, 25 years apart. We’re just very good with one another, we respect each other, and I never really feel that he’s 25 years older than me. I remember people saying, 'When you’re 50, he’s going to be 75.' Well that’s just maths."
Catherine , who stars in Tim Burton's latest hit Wednesday, a live action Addams Family series on Netflix in which she plays Morticia Addams, and Michael share two children, Dylan. 22 and Carys, 19, both of whom, she revealed, have a passion for acting.
And one thing they hope they've instilled in them as parents, who are renowned celebrities, is that "celebridom is not the same thing as acting, being a musician, having a craft. But they know that you don’t have to do much to be a celebrity. In fact, bad behaviour makes it 10 times easier". She adds: "I do think the magic of the movies has been dented by celebrity."
To read the full interview, see here.
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