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Constance Zimmer is having one of those months—the kind where the calendar fills up fast and the conversation around her gets louder. Appearing in all ten episodes of Netflix’s The Lincoln Lawyer Season Four as formidable prosecutor Dana “Death Row Dana” Berg, she is also stepping into Ryan Murphy’s highly anticipated Love Story as Ann Messina Freeman, the mother of Carolyn Bessette. Offscreen, the Emmy-nominated actress (long known for commanding roles on Entourage and UnREAL) is just as booked and outspoken, using her voice to push for more honest storytelling around aging, menopause and women’s power in Hollywood. Between developing new projects, co-founding initiatives focused on midlife representation, hosting a candid podcast, and raising a family, Zimmer is stepping out and speaking up
You had a busy couple of days—the premiere of Lincoln Lawyer, and now you have Ryan Murphy’s Love Story coming out. How are you feeling this week?
“If I didn’t say it felt good, I would be lying! That’s the thing about this entertainment business…you do all this work, and you never know when it’s going to air or how it’s going to air. The fact that these are both basically premiering within one week of each other is just even more magical because then I get to talk about both, and they both could not be more different.
Also, as an actor, it’s very exciting for me to have two totally different female characters on two totally different basically mediums or storytelling.
It feels so great. I just feel so grateful, and I’m trying to stay in the moment because it doesn’t happen like this all the time.”
Well, congrats. Everyone is talking about both of the shows. It’s always nice in the dead of winter to have something to look forward to to watch.
“Very true, very true! Something where you can just cozy up with in your bed.”
You have a lot of press, which comes with a lot of hair, makeup, the glam, the styling. How do you get yourself into the right head space and ready to step onto the red carpet when you’re going so much?
“Oh my gosh. Well, sleep is number one, always. There’s a lot of overnight masks. I do a lot of sleeping in certain moisture masks, especially here in New York because it’s so cold and so dry. There’s a lot of moisturizing going on. A lot of overnight creams, repair creams, basically.
I also drink a lot of juices and smoothies. I hydrate on the way, on the go, making sure I’m replenishing my protein and my greens and my fruits, because it’s a lot to keep up with. I really believe that when you’re keeping yourself healthy from the inside out, that ends up showing itself on the outside as well.”
Sleep is always the answer. Besides the acting projects, you’ve been very vocal recently about menopause and midlife. More people are talking about it. How do you feel in the public eye talking about it?
“It’s been very, very interesting to watch this menopause movement. I was basically shot out of a cannon without a parachute and dropped into a pool of muddy water with no way out, and nobody was talking about menopause. Then, within basically six months, it was everywhere. There were nine books that came out last year alone about menopause.
The timing for me being in the public eye and being scared of how we are seen and judged for aging is why my mission for the movement to talk about midlife, which is even beyond menopause. At least now with menopause, we’re given information, we’re talking to doctors, we’re gathering insight to help ourselves be healthier through whatever that is, diet, exercise, hormone replacement, whatever is good for you, whatever works for you during this time. For me, the storytelling that’s lacking is, and then what?
If we aren’t continuing to put stories out in entertainment showing women at and after a certain age why it is important, how empowering it is, where you find your strength, who creates the weakness. We don’t create the weakness as women. It is created around us and in spite of us. The movement for me in the public eye that I think is incredibly important and is lacking is the storytelling to show women of a certain age that you matter, and that your stories matter, and that this is so beyond what your looks are.
That it’s more about what your meaning is in life, and how over 50, even over 45, even over 40, it’s where are those stories? Who’s telling them? We’re just a divorced wife or a mom who’s an empty nester. Where are the Devil Wears Prada, Meryl Streep characters that are owning their age, owning their power? They’re the most powerful they’ve ever been in their life because they have less f*s to give, if you just want to say it that bluntly. You know what I mean?
There is just something happening that I wasn’t expecting at this age. It is about saying, look, I have less time in front of me than I have behind me. What am I going to do with that time? Well, I want to do as much as I can. I want to make sure that I’m leaving a legacy of storytelling and meaning for women that get to this age that aren’t afraid of this age. Nobody should be afraid of aging unless they are not prepared for it. A lot of generations before us, our mothers, our grandparents, our great-grandparents, they were not informed.
That’s what feels like my mission—being in the entertainment business and talking out about it, is like, let’s talk about the part that’s more important than what we look like, because my talent as an actor has not lessened just because I’ve gotten older. It’s only gotten stronger, but there’s nowhere for me to put it. That’s what it’s about for me. I want to help other women get to this age with power—not with feeling afraid of it.”
I love that. I always think of you as playing powerful women. Does all of the above determine how you pick your roles and who you will play on screen?
“Well, I wish I could say that I pick my roles! But that’s the part that’s out of my control. When these roles do show up as opportunities, I’m always grateful to be on the list, let’s say. I do find that maybe because I have played a lot of these characters in my career, it’s giving me a platform also to be one of those strong women in my real life, which I really have never been.
I did a panel for Let’s Talk Menopause, and I said: ‘I feel like I’m in my Quinn era. I’m in my Dana Gordon era. I’m finally being the women that I play on television, but in Constance Zimmer’s life.’ It’s been very fun to have that surprise me…when did I become this woman? I’m not even sure! Even though I’ve always played them, I’ve never, ever been like, ‘Oh, yes, I’m that way in real life.’ I’m so not that. I’m so insecure. I’m so the opposite.
Maybe because I have presented as that on television or on screen, it feels like a natural progression that I should be doing it also in my personal life. Now, what’s happening is there are just fewer parts in this age range. It’s like, come on, we’re behind on that! Let’s get going.”
