ELLEN BARKIN

There’s an unspoken rule that actresses in Hollywood should strive for physical perfection, or at least the illusion of it. But Ellen Barkin never was one to play by the book, and she is not about to start now. For her VIOLET GREY photo shoot, which took place at New York’s historic Carlyle hotel, the 60-year-old actress asked that her appearance not be altered or retouched, come what may (blemishes, undereye circles, the odd errant hair). It was a brave, even provocative, decision that required no small amount of self-confidence.

In other words, it was very Barkin.

Born in the Bronx and educated at New York’s prestigious High School of Performing Arts, the actress has forged a critically-lauded career playing steely, hard-luck heroines in such hits as Diner (1982), Sea of Love (1989), and Ocean's Thirteen (2007). She’s also enjoyed considerable success on Broadway, most recently in The Normal Heart (2011) for which she won a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play. Her latest film, The Cobbler, co-starring Dustin Hoffman, Adam Sandler, and Steve Buscemi, premieres at the Toronto Film Festival next month.

Offscreen, Barkin lives up to her shoot-from-the-hip persona. In the below interview she chats candidly with good friend, journalist and author Carole Radziwill, about such hot button issues as aging, cosmetic surgery, and dating younger men (she has two adult children with ex-husband, Gabriel Byrne). She also opens up about her decision to have longtime stylist, Serge Normant, chop her chin-length bob into a Jean Seberg-esque pixie cut on the set of the VIOLET GREY shoot.

Unabashedly imperfect, Barkin is, in her own words, “owning it”.

{"type"=>"root", "children"=>[{"type"=>"paragraph", "children"=>[{"type"=>"text", "value"=>"Ellen Barkin biting into a burger"}]}]}

{"type"=>"root", "children"=>[{"type"=>"paragraph", "children"=>[{"type"=>"text", "value"=>"Ellen Barkin in black & white"}]}]}

{"type"=>"root", "children"=>[{"type"=>"paragraph", "children"=>[{"type"=>"text", "value"=>"Ellen Barkin at the Carlyle hotel"}]}]}

Editor's Note

I have not been under the KNIFE.

BARKINS' BON MOTS
Barkin never shies away from speaking her mind. Here are some of her quotable remarks (bon mots) from her two-hour conversation with Radziwill.

Editor's Note

I don’t want to be a mentor in my bedroom. I don’t want to sit at dinner with someone and explain who Martin Amis or Philip Roth are— I just don’t.

Editor's Note

When I was young I was interested in learning and growing and so I was very much drawn to older men who were smarter than me. Sometimes they were quite substantially older than me… like my professor in college.

Editor's Note

When I was young, I based my [acting] choices around playing fringe, undervalued women. You know, working class single mothers, the woman whose husband didn’t love her because she wasn’t pretty enough. Now, I’m not playing some 60-year-old sad sack because that’s not how I feel and, by the way, that’s not how the girls I know feel.

Editor's Note

I think as you get older you become, hopefully, much more familiar with your own sexuality. I was always very comfortable with my sexuality. Even as a young girl when I felt very unattractive, I never felt unattractive in bed. It’s a weird contradiction.

Editor's Note

It’s like ignoring antibiotics. There have been advances in the technology of beauty that I think are great. And, you know, what? Use it.

Editor's Note

She forged a CAREER that didn't stem from the fact that she has the best boobs in Hollywood.

Shopping Cart

Order Summary

ELLEN BARKIN