Halle Berry says she’s entering her 60s with the same drive she’s always had — and no plans to slow down just yet.
On Wednesday’s episode of the “Making Space with Hoda Kotb” podcast, the Oscar-winning actor said one of the things she finds frustrating about aging is the expectation that she should retire.
Berry, who turns 60 on August 14, told podcast host Hoda Kotb that people often ask if she’ll continue making movies, and she says she sees no reason to stop.
“People actually say, ‘But you’ve done so much. Like, isn’t it time to just quit all that and sit down somewhere and just be on a permanent vacation?'” Berry said.
Berry said she believes many people see retirement as the natural next step after years of hard work, but she isn’t convinced that’s the only path.
“Why do I want to, after I’ve worked my whole life so hard and it’s made me feel all of myself, it’s validated who I was, it’s given me a sense of purpose,” Berry said. “Why should I now sit down and give that all away — and then what?”
Berry said the assumption that older adults should retire is also part of what makes people feel “invisible” as they age.
“We’re expected to find something else to do, we’re expected to be on a permanent vacation as if life is somehow over, or we no longer have value, or what we have to say isn’t significant anymore,” Berry added.
She said that she doesn’t buy into the idea that people have less to offer as they get older.
“That’s the hard part for me, I’m always combating that with people and having to quiet them on that issue,” she said.
This isn’t the first time that Berry has spoken about pushing back against stereotypes surrounding aging.
In a February interview with “The Cut,” Berry said she resonated with her role as a middle-aged insurance broker in her latest film, “Crime 101.”
“You get to this age where you feel like you’re being marginalized, devalued. You feel it at work. You feel it from society,” Berry told The Cut. “But I have adamantly decided I am not going to allow myself to be erased.”
Berry isn’t the only celebrity who has said that age isn’t a reason to step away from work.
Morgan Freeman has said he has no plans to retire, even as he approaches 90.
“There is a saying about old age — ‘keep moving’ — and what Clint Eastwood, says: ‘Don’t let the old man in,'” Freeman told AARP in a November interview.
Patti Smith, 79, has said that aging has only strengthened her desire to keep working.
“And I have so much to do and so many things I want to do, so many things I want to write,” Smith said during a podcast appearance in January.
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