Linda Hamilton Gets Real About Aging in Hollywood

Linda Hamilton is sharing her candid thoughts on aging.

The 69-year-old actress, best known for her role of Sarah Connor in the Terminator films, opens up about the pressures of Hollywood in an AARP Movies for Grownups interview published on Tuesday, Nov. 26.

“I do not spend a moment trying to look younger on any level, ever,” she tells the outlet. “I have just completely surrendered to the fact that this is the face that I’ve earned. And it tells me so much.”

Hamilton said she doesn’t “chase beauty” and instead stays “fully planted in the moment.”

“But that doesn’t mean you don’t try to be healthy,” she continued. “But not all the time — sometimes it is just a jelly donut. I’m not rigid, which is a fantastic way to get older. I’ve always said that rigidifying is what kills us: the rigid thoughts and the sort of not moving. I’ve tried very hard in my life to stay as fluid as possible.”

She added, “One definition of happiness is being in the middle of a fast-moving river and not trying to swim to the left or the right side. And that, truly, is kind of what my life has been. It’s been a great, fun ride.”

Hamilton also revealed that there’s “a lot of damage and harm” to her body after years of doing her own stunts

To keep her body in tip-top shape (especially while working on season 5 of Stranger Things), she worked out three times a week.

“It was Pilates, it was yoga, a lot of free weights, machines, cables, everything,” she said. “And I kind of love that: to go in and not have a chest and back day, but just have a ‘what do you need to loosen up and stretch out today.’” 

In June 2023, it was announced that Hamilton would join the cast of the hit sci-fi Netflix series for its final season. The details of her character Dr. Kay are still under wraps.

“I couldn’t wait to tell people. I just couldn’t wait,” she told AARP Movies for Grownups.

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Hamilton previously shared that as a Stranger Things super fan, working on the series gave her “imposter syndrome.”

“I’ve watched every season with relish. I just love it,” she told Us Weekly in February 2024. “So it’s kind of like imposter syndrome where I don’t [feel that I] fit in there. That’s a whole world set in the ’80s.”

Being part of the show made Hamilton view it differently. “When you really buy into something, you don’t see yourself in it,” she admitted. “So I think in a way, it kind of ruined the show for me.”

Still, she loved the experience, affirming, “I’m thrilled to be part of it. But I just never, ever saw that one coming. It is different when you’re a fan of the show to sort of go, ‘Well, how do I fit?’ But we’re working on it.”

The actress said that she won’t even watch the fifth and final season of Stranger Things because “I never watch [a project], once I’m in something. It would just completely take me out of the reality of it to see myself in there. So I won’t be watching.”