It’s a refreshing take — especially for a series on a channel known for its romantic plotlines — for the show’s writers to make a love story for Del a possibility, but not a priority. (If you watch the show, you know Del Landry is not a supporting character in anyone’s life, least of all a man’s.) And it’s been a delight for MacDowell to have her voice heard when it comes to her character’s storylines.
“Shockingly, they listen to me!” she says. “That's probably been one of the most rewarding aspects of this job: They listen to me.” MacDowell didn’t think a love story was right for Del in season one, for example, and her character didn’t have one. In season two, her idea for how her character met her love interest made it into the script.
“It's interesting because they are allowing so much of my own personal feelings for Del, about how hard it is to be in a relationship now,” she says. “And I was like, is it working? Is there chemistry?” MacDowell initially worried that the relationship would be cringey on screen; instead, she found it to be beautiful. It’s a different type of relationship than when two people are young — as it has to be — and that’s okay.
So Del has got “a lot more going on” in the romance department than MacDowell, and that’s okay too. “I think a lot of people, like even friends that I love, project onto me that I must be lonely and sad,” she says. “They can't fathom what it is like because they're in a relationship and they're married and, you know, there's two of them and they think that's so fantastic. [But] I have to say I'm really comfortable. I'm not lonely or unhappy. So it would take someone really special to come into my life.”
ndie MacDowell is in her happy place. Sitting in the Charleston-area home she’s lived in for
less than a year, the actress and former model is explaining how she finally, at the age of 65,
has found herself in the exact right spot.
“I've been vacationing here for 10 years,” she says, noting that the area has long been a place for her to relax, recharge, and reconnect with nature. But actually putting down permanent roots? That was a decision that involved both help from her family — one of her sisters handled the move after MacDowell came to South Carolina in April for her 65th birthday with them, found her dream house, and promptly had to leave for work — and declaring her independence from it.
Playing interesting, complex characters, like the mothers she portrays in Maid and The Way Home, is another perk of MacDowell’s long career. “I think as I’ve aged I’ve been able to create more interesting characters,” she says. “I think when I was younger my looks kind of got in the way.”
A Method-trained actor, MacDowell digs as deep as she can for the dramatic, often painful, scenes The Way Home calls for. “But it’s not comfortable,” she says.
Her relationship with her own mother, who abused alcohol and died when MacDowell was 23, has allowed her to access the pain that some of her recent roles have required — Maid in particular. “That wasn’t really, truly my mother,” she says, “but I’ve seen a lot of darkness…so I had a lot of different things that I could tap into for that character and places that I could go. And Margaret knew about my childhood, so when she got the role she told them, ‘You know who would be great in this is my mother.’”
At 65, the actress has a hit TV series in The Way Home — and a mission
to empower older women.
ANDIE
MACDOWELL
BY ERIKA JANES | photographs by GEORGE CHINSEE
Isn’t Afraid
to Act
Her Age
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I still want to be seen, but not for the reasons that young people are seen. I want to be seen for all the things
that maybe a man might be seen for: my strengths,
my intelligence, my knowledge, my experience.
AndiE mAcdowell
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Be healthy, but also hold on to our culture. So, yes, keep the soul food, but those are celebration dishes. Those are the dishes that we made on a Sunday or when somebody is celebrating a wedding or a birth or when they’re transitioning. We will not have lots of celebrations unless we live with the everyday.
CARLA HALL
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creditS
Creative Direction
+ Design
Jen Ciminillo
Laura Kavanaugh
Styling
Marc Eram, Alexa Gabriel
Makeup
Mary Wiles
Hair
Ben Skervin
Photographs
George Chinsee
Video
Reshma Gopaldas
Allie O’Connell
Sarah Wallace
Article
Erika Janes
Aging Out Loud
Beyond simply making a physical statement with her hair, MacDowell is intent on empowering women as they age.
“I don’t like the idea that we disappear,” she says. “I mean, I think it’s good that we can be watchers, but I think we’re far too important as humans to disappear.”
MacDowell is not resigned to the invisibility of the older woman, the one past her childbearing years, just as she’s not immune to it. (“I've experienced it,” she says, “and if I've experienced it, believe me, every other woman my age out in the world is experiencing it.”) She admits that letting her hair go gray kicked her “a little deeper” into the feeling of seeing more than being seen.
A
Return to Innovation
& Advocacy Issue
Return to Innovation
& Advocacy Issue
Generational trauma is a component of The Way Home, and MacDowell has done her own work to understand and break the cycle of her own childhood trauma and the anxiety and PTSD that have come with it. Meditation and mindfulness have helped, as has an acupuncturist “who’s better than any therapist I’ve ever been to.”
She’s also working on being less reactive — to not project and not try to read every room she’s in. “I'm terrible at that, because that's how I survived,” she admits. “I see everything that's happening around me, because I'm a child of an alcoholic; I was always looking for something to go wrong. And I had to — that was the only way I could protect myself. But at some point, you can't be responsible for every thought that every other person is having about you. You just have to come from your own self and not worry about all those things. So I'm working on that.”
Return to Flow SPACE
Return to flow SPACE
“I contemplated coming sooner but I wanted to stay near my kids,” she says. “And I was turning 65 and I thought, ‘This is stupid. Time's running out. What do you want to do with your life?’ And I was like, I want to live here. That's what I want to do. And it was the right decision.”
She’s okay with it — to a degree. She knows that so much of how the world runs, as she says, “is on nature — and nature is about procreating.” She brings up a “beautiful” Atlantic article she read on the topic that she both liked and hated because, as she explains, “I still want to be seen, but not for the reasons that young people are seen. I want to be seen for all the things that maybe a man might be seen for: my strengths, my intelligence, my knowledge, my experience.”
She adds: “You know, I still consider myself having the ability to be a sexual being, but it's definitely changed. It's a different feeling than what it is when you're younger.”
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quote here
AndiE mcdowell
MacDowell has also been open with her three adult children — son Justin, 38; and daughters Rainey, 34; and Margaret, 29 — about her experiences.
Indeed, her children are, and always have been, one of the driving joys of her life, and it’s not lost on her that the relationship she has with each of them as adults is something she didn’t get to have with her own mother.
MacDowell has talked about her growing pains as an empty nester. She has talked about the internal struggle of being needed less, and of being less needy. It’s been a journey — and she’s finally finding herself where she wants to be.
“You know, it was really hard for me to just get excited about being me,” she admits. “I was so excited about being a mother and so into them that I couldn't get into just being me. So much of my joy and happiness came from them. But I finally figured out how to not need that so much anymore.”
What’s her secret? Well, that brings us back to her current home. For years, MacDowell lived where she thought she’d have access to her children. When she wrapped her series Cedar Cove, she moved to Montana to be near her son. When Rainey mentioned that she missed Los Angeles and wished her mom had a place there, MacDowell’s response was, ‘Where would you like it to be?’ and bought a place two weeks later. “It was insane,” she admits.
And then enough was enough. “I just don't do that anymore,” she says. “It's not that I don't enjoy them and love them, but I found my sweet place,” she says. “I came back to South Carolina and this is a better place for me.”
It turns out location really is everything — at least for MacDowell. She shows off the view of her backyard, which features an elegant deep-blue pool and an expanse of trees. Beyond that is the beach, which she bikes or walks to every day; and her friends; and the Pilates, yoga, and weight classes she enjoys. She plans to learn how to play bridge, and maybe take a line-dancing class. It’s a busy, “super, super healthy” lifestyle, and one that clearly suits her.
“I've found my happy place,” she says, “and I'm just where I need to be.”
Andie MacDowell is “Ready to Be an Older Woman,” But She’s Not Done Rewriting the Script on Aging
Andie MacDowell Says “Going Gray Made Me So Much More Powerful”
MacDowell has made a lot of right decisions lately: She’s thriving professionally, having earned a Golden Globe nomination for her role in the 2021 Netflix miniseries Maid (which she starred in alongside her daughter Margaret Qualley), and is currently playing matriarch Del Landry in the Hallmark Channel’s multigenerational drama The Way Home, now in its second season.
And personally? Well, she’s in a happy place there, too. MacDowell let her iconic curls go gray during the pandemic and instantly became a symbol of aging gracefully. Maybe a symbol of courage, too, considering her profession. She’s been asked about her gray hair a lot — this interview is no exception — but insists she’s not tired of talking about it, and not tired of challenging the idea that she should want to look younger.
“If I were coloring my hair, people might perceive me as being younger,” she admits. “But, you know, I just don't need that; it's not something that I desire. It's not a perception that would be satisfying for me. I'm comfortable being seen as an aging woman.”
Finding Fulfillment
Twice married and divorced, MacDowell is not currently in a romantic relationship — nor is she looking for one, despite having made jokes about joining the dating app Raya. Her character in The Way Home, on the other hand, might be finding love this season. Having lost her beloved husband roughly two decades earlier, season one saw Del Landry briefly flirt with a relationship before she decided, on her own terms, that it wasn’t right. But in season two (so far) we’ve gotten a glimpse that she might find a new love after all, in the form of a handsome new neighbor.
Mothering Herself
Finding Fulfillment
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