The Real Marina Sirtis
3 min readIn a new interview with Kougar Magazine, Marina Sirtis lets her hair down and discusses everything from her career and the expectations of Hollywood, to middle-aged sexuality.
One of the benefits of being a Hollywood actress that Sirtis enjoyed was being a sex symbol. Even though she is a feminist, she did not find the two incompatible. “People say to me, because I’m a bit of a feminist with a small ‘f,’ people say, ‘How can you be a feminist when people regard you as a sex symbol?'” To answer those people, Sirtis refers back to her past.
“And I’m like, okay, first of all,” explained Sirtis, “when you’ve been ugly, if you had said to me when I was 12, you’re going to be a sex symbol when you’re older, I would’ve laughed and said, ‘Are you high?’ So, to me it’s like a huge compliment. And especially as I’m older. I was in my thirties when I became a sex symbol; it wasn’t something that happened when I was young. And I think it’s great. I mean, I really think it’s great. However, the body, it was hard to maintain!”
There’s a downside to maintaining that image, the necessity for many actresses to undergo plastic surgery. Sirtis had her own plastic surgery, but regrets it now. “Well, first of all, it doesn’t make sense for actresses,” she said. “It doesn’t make sense for actresses to have plastic surgery because there’s no point in looking forty when you’re sixty because you know what? They’re gonna hire somebody who’s forty.
“One of the reasons I’m so adamant against plastic surgery is because I fell into that trap of being the Hollywood starlet. And I had beautiful boobs. But as I got older, of course they got softer and they didn’t stay where I wanted them to stay so I went and had my boobs done. It is the worst thing I ever did; I regretted it from day one, which is maybe why I’m so adamant against everything else now, because I hate ’em. And because I hate them, people ask, “Why don’t you have them taken out?” Because I think that again is feeding into that whole thing of let’s fix it, let’s fix it, let’s fix it. You don’t have to fix it. I made a decision, I’ve made my bed, I’m lying in it.”
Sirtis also discussed menopause, saying that it was her “mission in life” to talk about it. “…It’s like a dirty little secret,” she said. “No one talks about it, your mother doesn’t talk about it, it’s like it’s something you should be ashamed of. You don’t talk about it. I mean I’m sitting there fanning myself with a fan. You know what? I’m not in The Importance of Being Earnest, I’m having a hot flash, you know? Again, it’s an acceptance, it’s natural. The same way we start our period, you know, one day it’s gonna end. And things happen to you when your period ends.”
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