'I just couldn't believe it': Isabella Rossellini, 65, recalls her shock after Lancôme asked her to star in a new campaign - 23 YEARS after firing her because she was 'TOO OLD'
- Isabella, 65, became the face of Lancôme in 1982 and advertised a wide range of products for the brand, until she was fired 14 years later aged 43
- The actress and model has said that her ousting was due to her age, and at the time accused the company of firing her because she was a 'strong woman'
- Despite their public falling out, Lancôme and Isabella are now working together again after the brand reached out to her in 2015
- The cream Isabella advertises in the latest campaign is sometimes branded as 'antiage', which she said 'irritates' her
- Asked why she doesn't like that kind of messages in the beauty industry, the mother and grandmother said: 'Because we can't antiage. It's against nature!'
Isabella Rossellini has bashed anti-aging rhetoric in the cosmetics industry, while revealing why she decided to reprise her role as the face of Lancôme, two decades after she was fired for being 'too old'.
The actress and model, now 65, became the face of Lancôme in 1982 and advertised a wide range of products for the brand, until she was fired 14 years later at the age of 43. For a while, she thought her modeling career was over, until Lancôme reached out again, this time during her sixties.
'I just couldn’t believe it,' she told Glamour of Lancôme's request to resume their partnership, back in 2015. 'I mean, it wasn't like three years later. Twenty-three years is a lifetime. I did say, "You better see me", because I thought maybe they looked at the old photos and thought I haven't changed.'
Face of the brand: Isabella Rossellini has bashed anti-aging rhetoric in the cosmetics industry. She is pictured in a new campaign for Lancôme
Career: The actress and model, now 65, became the face of Lancôme in 1982 and advertised a wide range of products for the brand, until she was fired 14 years later aged 43
While working with the brand again, Isabella has been determined to fight against anti-aging messages, at one point telling the company during a meeting just how much that kind of wording aggravates her.
The conversation took place while Isabella and Lancôme were discussing a cream she is advertising, which is sometimes described as an anti-aging product.
'Now they've developed several versions of this cream and the latest is called Rénergie Multi-Glow. We had a long discussion about that, because sometimes it's still described as antiage—and I said, "Antiage!? That irritates me!"' Isabella said.
Asked why anti-aging messages bother her so much, the mother and grandmother added: 'Because we can't antiage. It's against nature!'
Back when Lancôme first sacked her, Isabella spoke openly of her relationship with the company.
'I did not leave on my own; they hired a younger woman with raven hair to replace me,' she said in 2002 according to a conversation archived by New York Magazine. 'They fired me because I was strong.'
In the same monologue, Isabella explained 16 years ago that she didn't take kindly to Lancôme's decision to send her 'many flowers' on her 40th birthday.
'It was a morgue,' she said. 'I knew I was dead. They said, "Be grateful, Isabella. You're lucky you lasted so long in the business."'
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Opportunities: For a while, Isabella (pictured in a Lancôme ad in 1983) thought her modeling career was over, until Lancôme reached out again, this time during her sixties
Candid: Back when Lancôme first sacked her, Isabella (pictured in an archive ad for the brand) spoke openly of her relationship with the company
Statement: While working with the brand again, Isabella (pictured in a previous ad for the brand) has been determined to fight against anti-aging messages
Isabella advertised the same line she is representing now, Rénergie, during her first time as the face of Lancôme.
Now, she attributes much of the brand's decision to bring her back to the fact that Lancôme is now managed by a woman, Françoise Lehmann, the general manager of Lancôme international.
'I think it has a lot to do with the fact that the general manager is now a woman,' Isabella told Glamour.
'She told me she wanted to be inclusive and not just portray women as beautiful when they're young and thin with blond hair and blue eyes. And she wanted [the brand] to be an instrument of finding elegance and glamour, rather than dictating to women what they should be.
'She also felt like, before, cosmetics were emphasized as a seduction tool—which obviously they are. We put makeup on if we're going out on a date. But the other part that wasn't emphasized was the real pleasure women have in self-decorating. There's a feminine pleasure in making things look prettier and put together.'
Leadership: Isabella (pictured in 2015) attributes much of the brand's decision to bring her back to the fact that Lancôme is now managed by a woman
Boss: The model (pictured in a 1994 Lancôme ad) previously said she felt as though 'things had changed' the first time she met Françoise Lehmann, the head of Lancôme international
Isabella previously recounted how her first encounter with the company's head left a durable impression on her, telling the Daily Mail: 'A fantastic-looking woman got off, took off her casque [helmet] and this blonde hair fell out.
'Then she walked up to me, shook my hand and said: "Hi, I'm Françoise," and, just with that, I knew things had changed.
'Before, I used to deal with 60-year-old men who were paternalistic and condescending.'
Back when the brand first sacked her, Isabella said, beauty was still strongly associated with youthfulness, even though Lancôme didn't directly tell her 'You're too old to be beautiful.'
'The rationale was that women dream to be young, so you cannot represent that dream when you're not young anymore,' she told Glamour.
Aesthetic: Back when the brand first sacked her, Isabella (pictured in a 1994 Lancôme ad) said, beauty was still strongly associated with youthfulness
Model: Now, Isabella (pictured in January with her newborn grandson) is hopeful that her return on Lancôme's side will reflect changes happening for women on a larger scale
'The thought was you have to have a young-looking person sends the message "eternal beauty is youth." Obviously, I didn't agree, and it hurt me because I felt that I wasn't alone.
'So I asked my friends: Do you really dream to be young? A lot of them said no. We dream to be elegant and sophisticated, but young? We know at the beginning from the moment you're born you're going to grow older, so don't deny that reality. You just say, how do I live well through the different chapters of my life, that's what people seek.
'Also, it wasn't only Lancôme. I was dropped by a lot of other jobs. Lancôme was the most known because it was a big company, and because the campaign was so successful. But I stopped modeling all together and eventually even working less as an actress. I mean, it happens, even still today.'
Now, Isabella is hopeful that her return on Lancôme's side will reflect changes happening for women on a larger scale.
'Beauty is how you define it for yourself and what is it that you want to present of yourself,' she told Vanity Fair.
'The evolution of the story, then and now, things change and change for the better. It's not only inclusive in the sense that I'm 65 but the cream, too, the innovation of it all in the formula and also the ad language speaks of sophistication—it is communication that is positive and happy. Therefore, I feel energized, delighted, and surprised, not just because it's happening for me, but for everybody.'
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