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Shania Twain is in a new movie called I Still Believe with Gary Sinese and K.J. Apa, which is out this weekend. She was on a podcast called Ladygang promoting it. She explained that she did the movie because she finally had time after she got her voice healed post-lyme disease. She also had a lot of insightful things to say about her career, including her triumphs and regrets, and aging.
On recovering her voice after lyme disease
I feel wonderful that I made it through the other side of a very difficult journey and recovery. It was way worse than I thought it would be, but I’m now I love my new voice. It is different, it’s not what it was. I have two gortex crutches on either side of my larynx.When she felt the most powerful and when she felt the weakest
The superbowl of 2003. I was ready to go out there and do what I always do. That’s the day that I met Gwen Stefani and she says ‘I want to get married someday and have kids. I don’t know how you do it all.’ She highlighted how big it was in that moment and how powerful it was for me as a woman who was doing it all.I was asked to speak at a university on songwriting and I turned it down because I felt so insecure. I’m not formally educated, I don’t have college. I felt intimidated and shied away from it. I regret that.
On how she got confidence
I just started with time, stepping out of battles you can’t win. Aging is a battle you can’t win. That battle and the focus and energy it takes is taking up too much space in my life, my emotional state, my mental state. I’ve got songs to write. I’d rather dream about other things I want to do in my life. I want to daydream, fantasize and enjoy what I do have and forget about the stuff I can’t change or can’t have. It’s a waste of time and energy trying to slow my aging process down. I just want to be healthy. I’m so much more accepting now of the way I look, with and without clothes.A state of mind that helps me is just saying ‘identify what it is that I can change and what it is I can’t change.’ It’s about letting go.
[From the Ladygang podcast via US Magazine]
After that they asked her about Vegas and she said she loves it, especially the performance community and the shopping.
They also asked if she was impressed much when Brad Pitt won his Oscar. She said she was happy for him and “I kind of feel like he’s been haunted by this song.” She’s never met him though. I’m not a Brad Pitt fan but I would still love it if someone made that happen.
I really like how she framed aging as inevitable and a waste of resources to fight. She’s probably obliquely referencing plastic surgery. I don’t want to slow it or fight it, I just want to look amazing as I do it. Is that the same as fighting it? Also, did you see the photo that Melanie Griffith just posted of her mom, Tippi Hedren? That’s how I want to age.
Shania at the 2003 Super Bowl! I’m including this because she mentioned this performance in her interview.
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Aging is a privilege if you have access to quality healthcare, good drinking water and decent support. It’s sad that people rip others to shreds for plastic surgery instead of asking for basic human protections to help people age with support and dignity.
always loved Shania, especially her story on how she got together with her current husband.
And she looks great!
+++
I like her attitude. The most important factors in aging, IMO, are maintaining good physical and mental health. Everything else could be deemed a luxury, and I appreciate that a woman as beautiful as she was has turned aside vanity and decided to age gracefully.
She is still attractive, btw, but of course it’s not the same. That is what age does: wrinkles, body fat changes, skin changes. But as long as aging doesn’t come with chronic disease, it can be a relatively positive experience. I’m 56 with some bags under my eyes, btw.
Good grief, Lyme’s disease is devastating! How fortunate she was to have beaten it, but not without a great cost-her voice as it was!
I’ve always been kind of meh on Shania,but she seems like a nice woman and I like what she says about aging.She has the worst fashion sense-that blue dress with the open sleeves is awful.
Whaaaat that pic of Tippi Hedren is amazing!
Agree with you spice cake.
And I too want to look great as I age. I want to age gracefully and have people say: wow you look great, when they realize how old I am. And some of that comes down to genetics.
Great minds thinking alike here @seraphina😉Just like you say about your own aging,I am really in agreement with you.I am 44 and on rare occasions people get me and my 17 year old daughter mixed up (we both think it’s hilarious btw)But without a doubt I look 44 and I look like a healthy woman who takes care of herself ,I’m grateful for that and I just want that something something that people with good genetics have where you look at them and can’t quite figure if they are 55,40,or 30 and it doesn’t matter because they own their beauty and minimize their flaws.
Loving yourself truly is helpful and beautiful 💕
North American society reveres youth and perfection … to the point that wealthy 18 year olds get plastic surgery.
I love anyone who speaks to this. Who wants to “age gracefully”, ESPECIALLY WOMEN. Aging is normal and it is a privilege not everyone has. It would be so nice if our society valued kindness, wisdom and ethical behaviour as much as it values youth and beauty.
And I would love to live in a world were people are valued as they age. Sometimes the wisdom that comes can be truly amazing.
Very well said!
I’m a fan, but she looks she has had work. At least fillers.
I was gonna say…
So many people have had so many layers of work done – lifts, Botox, fillers, lasers, peels – that when it comes to Hollywood faces, I literally forget what aging is supposed to look like. They look vastly different and I think, “age related sagging? or fillers displacing her features?”
I have always loved and admired Shania and her tenacity.
I love her “new” voice, she hosted a show on CBC Radio and I loved to just hear her speak.
I think aging would feel tougher for women who got attention for their looks like Shania, her music videos usually showed her in tiny clothes showing off her stomach, that attention would get to your head inevitably and the change with age would feel noticeable since we are in a youth obsessed culture.
Most people got a normal amount of attention, meaning little to none, not much of a change or drop off for with age
Agreed. I think about Cindy Crawford, too (and other models) — an intelligent woman whose entire self-worth has been based on how she looks and her physical appeal to men. It must be difficult to hit 40-45, starting to seeing those wrinkles, having to exercise harder and eat less to maintain the body you “need” to still be “you” (in the eyes of the public, but also in your own eyes). It just sounds exhausting.
I’m not trying to be shady but when she guest judged on RuPaul’s Drag Race a year or so ago her face was so full of filler she could barely speak. So I find these comments from her on aging kind of curious.
I agree, I love her stance on aging, but she looks filled to the max with fillers. I’m aging gracefully on my part but if she still feels the need to tweek herself, go for it as long as she doesn’t look like that Brandi woman. I respect her for allowing her body to be more age appropriate. It’s difficult as heck for women our age to look stick thin and ridiculous when they look like booble heads. So you do you Shania and keep on being great.