Carrie Coon, 44, is a household name, but she’s spilling the tea on how aging impacts her career. The Gilded Age star described how she’s typecasted more than she expected to be.
“We all have a way we present in the world,” she explained in a conversation with Glamour. “The perception of me is that I am verbal, intellectual. My voice is lower and I don’t have Botox, so I tend to play older than I am. And so I’ve always had a gravitas or some authority.”
Carrie stars in the HBO show as Bertha Russell, the wife of railroad tycoon George Russel, played by Morgan Spector, 44. It’s now in her second season. Her role as the matriarch earned her an Emmy nomination.
The actor believes her voice is often far more important than her face.
“I started to understand just how vital it is as a woman to be fully voiced,” she explained. “You see women in positions of power who aren’t fully voiced, and it actually makes their job harder.”
And Carrie wants young actors to work hard against the pressure to conform in Hollywood.
© Variety via Getty Images“Authenticity is more evocative than any kind of engineering you might consider doing to your face or your body,” she said to Glamour. “Now, this is not the message coming from culture. As a woman who is 44, watching myself in HD is not easy, and it’s not comfortable.”
And, like many actors and women for that matter, Carrie feels the flashing desire to get Botox injections or filler in her lips, but she restrains and instead turns to injection free skincare.
“I like science-based skin care,” Carrie explained. “But I’m not going to inject anything into my face. It’s just…I think it’s scary and strange.”
© Getty Images for Warner Bros. DiCarrie recently starred in the third season in another HBO show, The White Lotus. The dramedy dives into the complexities of wealth, faith, and aging. Her character, Laurie, deeply feels her age. She reunites with her childhood best friends in a luxurious hotel in Thailand and is faced with how fast time passes.
In a now iconic monologue, Laurie says to her friends, played by Michelle Monaghan and Leslie Bibb, in the season’s finale: “I’m glad you have a beautiful face. And I’m glad that you have a beautiful life. And I’m just happy to be at the table.”
Regardless of how the characters she plays may feel about aging, Carrie seems to be embracing it.
“[Not getting Botox is] a choice I’m making for myself,” she said. “Yes, it’s hard, but I hope that I will continue to work as a character actor—they kicked me out of leading lady status—and I’m very inspired by other women in the business I see who I can tell are also not augmenting their appearance.”
© Getty ImagesOff screen, Carrie is married to actor and playwright Tracy Letts, 59. The couple married in 2013 and share two children together. Their son, Haskell, was born in 2018, and their daughter, whose name hasn’t been made public, was born in 2021.
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