Isabella Rossellini feels insulted when she's told she's "still beautiful".

Isabella Rossellini

Isabella Rossellini

The 64-year-old actress, who starred in the iconic movies 'Blue Velvet' and 'Death Becomes Her,' says it's condescending when people compliment her looks but doesn't mind if she is critiqued on her style.

She said: "When people tell me, 'You look so glamorous, you look sophisticated or elegant,' it's wonderful. But when people say, 'You're beautiful,' I find it a little condescending. Worse now, because they say, 'You're still beautiful.'

"In Italian, we say it's a knife with both edges, because I know that they mean it to please me, but it's almost like saying to a black woman, 'You're not so dark, you don't look so black.' I am old: this is what 65 looks like."

She added: "In Italian, we say it's a knife with both edges, because I know that they mean it to please me, but it's almost like saying to a black woman, 'You're not so dark, you don't look so black.' I am old: this is what 65 looks like."

Isabella is the new face of Lancome - 20 years after the luxury French cosmetic house sacked her for being too old - and bemoaned the lack of work in Hollywood for women who are 45-60.

Isabella's mother was Swedish screen siren Ingrid Bergman and the icon warned her of the pitfalls of acting for middle aged women.

Speaking in an interview with The Guardian newspaper, she said: "My mum told me that there is no jobs for women between 45 and 60, because you are in-between. You are not young enough to play the young girl, but you are also not old enough to play the matriarch, the witch or grandmother.

"So there is a period of 15 years where you're in limbo and they don't know how to hire you. Then after 60, a lot of work comes back. That was true for my mum. And you see, Maggie Smith is the hottest thing on Earth. Helen Mirren is the hottest thing on Earth. Then there is this gap."

Tagged in