Julianna Margulies: ‘If I Wasn’t Aging, I Wouldn’t Be Living!’

Julianna Margulies has been a fixture on TV for more than 20 years — which means that millions of people have watched her age practically (and semi-miraculously) in reverse from their living rooms for decades. It’s no secret that we all want to know her secrets. So NewBeauty asked her the questions we’ve been dying to — and you might want to pull out a pen and take notes.

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“There is so much pressure to look young, but it sure beats the alternative,” she says of her take on Hollywood’s intense scrutiny of actresses. “If I wasn’t aging, I wouldn’t be living. You have to embrace it. Hopefully, I will age. What are my other choices?”

That doesn’t mean she doesn’t take plenty of smart precautions to keep everything looking as good as possible. “”Unfortunately, there is no room for error on TV when it comes to your skin,” Margulies, 49, admits. “I diligently do a facial scrub almost every single night. Then, I apply a vitamin C serum and put my moisturizer on. I do it at night because that is when your skin needs to rejuvenate. I’ve found that my skin really does react to being constantly rejuvenated, and then it ends up looking better on camera.”

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And of course, there’s the holy grail of every actress’s skin care regimen (and no, we’re not talking about water): Sunscreen, which she’s been fanatical about for 30 years. “Since I was 19, I haven’t gone in the sun without sunscreen. It makes the biggest difference,” she says. “Even in the winter, I put sunscreen on. You think that when you live in New York, you aren’t getting sun, but it’s those little tiny bits of the day that are the worst for you.”

Courtesy New Beauty

There are a few things that many actresses swear by that you won’t see Margulies trying, though. Twitter is one (“My private time is my time”) and juice cleanses are another. “They are a slippery slope. Every friend I have who has done one looks great for two days, then they gain 10 pounds,” she says. “Your body needs fuel like a car. It needs energy. It needs to be a well-oiled machine.”

For more from the Good Wife star, pick up NewBeauty’s fall/winter issue on Oct. 6 and visit the site. Then tell us: How do you feel about sunscreen and juice cleanses?

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— Alex Apatoff
Follow @nicefunalex