What does ambition look like at 90 years old? How do you explain the drive behind people like Giorgio Armani, fully in charge of his global design empire as it approaches its tenth decade? When artist Betye Saar wakes up each day, she gets to work creating assemblages that are widely exhibited and avidly sought after by major collectors and museums—artwork whose origins date back to her childhood in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, during the Presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Why bother? Wasn’t retirement supposed to be the goal of a happy old age? Didn’t the plan involve taking up embroidery or golf? It turns out that older people represent a rapidly growing global population: the proportion of people over 65 is increasing at a faster rate than those below that age, according to World Population Prospects, a study by the United Nations. Between 2022, when the report was published, and 2050, the global population of those over 65 years of age is expected to increase from 10 to 16 percent.
Over the past few months, we’ve asked what makes people like 82-year-old Martha Stewart seem so unstoppable. Is there an explanation for why, in addition to prosperity and good health, some people are driven to pursue their dreams long past the time when recent history suggests we should be lying in our rocking chairs?
I love writing, I love acting, getting on stage and doing my little solo show, and I refuse to let a number or an age define me. I think that’s terribly outdated and not relevant in today’s world.
But you have to be resilient in this business. Rejection is part of it. I look with dismay at many of my fellow actors, destroyed by alcohol and drugs. My father—who was a theatrical agent—instilled in me that he should develop rhinoceros-like skin and be like a marshmallow on the inside.
You also need patience. This business is a waiting game. For example, they wrote me a script about the Duchess of Windsor (Wallis Simpson). I’ve wanted to do it since the 1980s. We got the green light just a month ago. Years ago I thought it would be wonderful to make a film about growing up with my sister Jackie. It simply has not been achieved.
It would be set when we were children, during the Blitz. At that time I didn’t feel afraid. I didn’t know about the bombings. We would collect shrapnel in the street and at night I would put it in my cigarette box. We made silly drawings of Hitler. We were evacuated 10 or 12 times.
A question I am often asked is: “why are you still working?” It’s a silly thing to say. I keep working because I love being busy. It’s exhausting when I do my solo show, going to a new hotel every night. But it is rewarding. The audience is very receptive. That encourages me.
Actress and writer
90 years
Recent and future projects: “Behind the Shoulder Pads, Tales I Tell My Friends,” a memoir; “Joan Collins Unscripted”, a British theater tour.
‘A question I am often asked is: why do you still work? “It’s a silly thing to say.”
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