• Angela Bassett has said it before and she'll say it again: "You look good for your historic period," is not a compliment.
  • The 63-year-old recently opened up near why she feels this way.
  • "When we have care of ourselves, we practise look good for our age, whatever historic period that is, y'all know?"

At 63, Angela Bassett knows she looks expert. She doesn't need anyone to tell her, specially if they're going to add "for your historic period" to the stop of the compliment.

If you think virtually it, the overused phrase, "Y'all expect practiced for your age," is kind of a backhanded insult—why must age be a factor in someone's dazzler? That's what Bassett wants to know.

"I think when nosotros take care of ourselves, we do look good for our age, any historic period that is, you know?" the actress recently told InStyle.

This isn't the outset fourth dimension the nine-i-1 star has resisted the cliché, either. In 2018, she told Allure of the time a woman bagging her groceries leaned over the counter to say, "You look and then young." Instead of thanking her, Bassett had a little fun with it. "I said, 'Hearing that is a wonderful thing—seeing every bit I'm 80!'" she laughed.

Although she admitted to Allure that information technology "feels good that they wonder," she knows her value is rooted in much more than than appearance. That'due south something she'southward paid close attending to throughout her career, especially as someone who has stepped into the shoes of legendary characters like Rosa Parks, Betty Shabazz, Tina Turner, and the Black Panther'south Ramonda, the Queen of Wakanda.

"Xxx and forty years ago when I started out, Black characters were weighted too heavily in the negative. I was always mindful of those images," she told InStyle. "There'due south complication to us. There's beauty to us. There's force to us. There's pity to us. In that location are so many wonderful things."

That may be why she doesn't have a ton of advice when it comes to looking youthful—she has more important things to talk almost. And when it comes to her radiant skin specifically, she admitted that she tin can't accept much credit for it.

"My aesthetician is a big part of it. I found a great one, Skin past Mamie [Mamie McDonald]. She is so gifted at what she does," Bassett raved. "Equally August Wilson in one case wrote, after 2 hours with her, 'I am shining similar new money.' I don't really wearable makeup if I don't have to. I'one thousand trying to just keep healthy skin that I don't demand to encompass upward."

And although it may be hard to believe, she does have problem areas that pop up, "like hormonal changes and melasma," she said. And when McDonald isn't working her magic on Bassett's peel, the actress previously told the Los Angeles Times that she loves using Dr. Barbara Sturm's line for darker peel tones.

Darker Skin Tones Enzyme Cleanser

DR. BARBARA STURM Darker Skin Tones Enzyme Cleanser
Credit: Nordstrom

Darker Skin Tones Hyaluronic Serum

DR. BARBARA STURM Darker Skin Tones Hyaluronic Serum
Credit: Nordstrom

Darker Skin Tones Face Cream

DR. BARBARA STURM Darker Peel Tones Face Cream
Credit: Nordstrom

Eye Cream

DR. BARBARA STURM Eye Foam
Credit: Nordstrom

"Only I feel like so much of who nosotros are is on the within," she told InStyle. "And then if you're stressed, it shows, and information technology shows in your pare."

In fact, in Bassett'southward opinion, staying as stress-free as possible works improve than any anti-aging cream on the market. "Equally we advance, threescore is the new forty, or 70 is the new fifty. It keeps getting pushed," she told Allure. "But you have to continue the stress downwards and the mental attitude hot."

Now those are some words of wisdom we can live past.

Headshot of Kayla Blanton

Kayla Blanton is a freelance writer who reports on all things health and nutrition for Men's Health, Women's Health, and Prevention. Her hobbies include perpetual coffee sipping and pretending to be a Chopped contestant while cooking.