When former actress Robinne Lee turned 40 she got frustrated at only being offered downtrodden female roles that didn’t reflect her own version of midlife.
“I was turning 40 in Hollywood, at the time where they kind of believe that at 40 you lost it, It’s over. You’re no longer viable. Thank you for your service. Goodbye,” the 51-year-old, who starred opposite Will Smith in Hitch, told Ateh Jewel in this week’s HELLO! Second Act podcast.
“I had fewer auditions, first of all. And the description of the character that you’re auditioning for changes.
“Suddenly it’s like ‘was once beautiful, has seen better days’ or ‘42, attractive but tired’.
“It tells you what they think when you’re 40. It’s like you could have been attractive once, you’re not attractive now, it’s disgusting.”
So she ‘fought back’ writing a bestselling debut novel The Idea Of You, about a 40-year-old mother embarking on a hot affair with a 20 something boyband singer. She took tips from Fifty Shades author EL James when the book was adapted into a film with Anne Hathaway as the lead role.
“I could see what my single friends were doing and thought, we don’t just fall off a cliff at 40. We’re still sexually viable. We still have value.”
It was one of many life pivots which has seen Robinne successfully flip careers from a promising Columbia Law student, to model, Hollywood actress and author. One of her dreams throughout it all was living in Paris, something she fulfilled in 2022 after relocating with her husband and two children.
“I pinch myself sometimes,” says Robinne, whose latest book Crash Into Me is out now. “When people tell me it can’t happen, that’s my impetus to prove them wrong. You’re not going to get into that college, You can’t be an actress.. Ok, watch me.
“I kind of felt like I’m going to be the exception to the rule, and I’m going to make it happen. I don’t know, I’ve just believed in myself. I had parents who believed in me.”
Robinne, who dated a member of New Kids On The Block in her 20s, has been with her film producer partner Eric Hayes for 26 years.
“If you find someone who is really smart and keeps you on your toes and is also funny, supportive and communicative and you know you have chemistry, it’s cool to hold on to him,” she says. “I feel like a lot of energy when I was younger was spent on when was I going to meet a partner before I was 30? I would have told myself to chill out.”
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