Robin Wright: 60 Is ‘Just Another Number That’s a Little Bigger’

The actress riffs on her movie family, her new guy — and why she still believes in love

As told to

Natasha Stoynoff,

AARP

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Published September 18, 2025

After paying her dues as a teen model and soap star on Santa Barbara, Robin Wright, 59, struck cinema gold her second time on the big screen in the iconic 1987 fantasy The Princess Bride. A few years later, she dazzled as troubled Jenny in another era-defining classic, 1994’s Forrest Gump.

Both were damsels in distress, but with gumption — a quality Wright exudes in spades off-screen, particularly when she famously fought for pay parity with her House of Cards costar Kevin Spacey during her six-season, Golden Globe–winning gig on that hit show.

“I want to keep encouraging and amplifying women’s voices,” says Wright, who cofounded a pajama company, Pour Les Femmes, that empowers women in conflict zones. “Not just in our industry but everywhere. We have to keep on the bandwagon.”

The actress spoke to AARP The Magazine from her temporary digs in London, where she was shooting the newly released Amazon Prime series The Girlfriend.

Screen envy all began at the movie theater

My friend and I lived on Mulholland Drive in LA as kids, and we’d walk down to the local theater in Woodland Hills to see double bills, like Woody Allen’s Sleeper with 2001: A Space Odyssey—though I love scary movies, like Fatal Attraction. That was our big Saturday. Later, I started dancing and modeling, and that led to being cast in a couple of commercials, selling Doritos, Capri-Sun, Maybelline.

Her teen modeling portfolio was straight out of Flashdance

I had this big, black, zippered “book” I took on modeling auditions, with pictures of me in leg warmers and a white, high-cut, one-piece bathing suit—they were so 1983.

The Princess Bride cast is her forever family...

We laughed so hard making that movie, we’d have to cut camera and start over again because it was such a giggle-fest. Normally, you go to a set, you act, you wrap, and you go back to your hotel room alone. But we took over the hotel, and Cary [Elwes] and I and Rob Reiner and Jamie Lee Curtis and Christopher Guest would all have a potluck dinner in the big kitchen. It was going home with people you had fun with to play music, eat good food and commune.

...but there will never be a sequel

Sometime after we hit the 30-year mark, the cast did a Zoom call, and a couple of actors were like, “We’ve been asked if we’ll do a sequel,” and I was like, “Well, a lot of us are going to be in a wheelchair.” So no, no, that will never happen.

Fans constantly yell out movie lines to her

I get “run, Forrest, run” from Forrest Gump. Little girls who love The Princess Bride say to me, “Hello. As you wish!” It’s so sweet. Both films are so timeless.

She’s a sucker for scary movies

I loved Fatal Attraction [1987], and The Strangers [2008] with Liv Tyler—that’s one of the scariest movies I’ve ever seen. I gravitate toward anything that’s on the edge, demented or sociopathic.

She played the 47th president in House of Cards, but if it was real life...

The first thing I’d do is hire an incredible team — you need your foundation and people you trust. Being president is like directing a movie. A politician once told me, “When we elect, don’t just go for policies that are spouted ad nauseam. Nobody ever lives up to those, they’re a script to get customers. Put that aside and just nominate smart people.”

You don’t get a plumber to come over and fix your fireplace.

robin wright wearing a white sleeveless top and a gold necklace

WireImage/Getty Images for Ralph Lauren

Her son, Hopper, gives mom acting advice

My daughter, Dylan, worked with her dad [Sean Penn] in Flag Day, and Hopper and I did a movie together called Devil’s Peak. I thought it would be uncomfortable to work together, but it felt so natural! I played a crackhead, and he was directing me because he’s seen more of that. He was coaching me!

After three divorces, she still believes in love

I’m such a romantic. You can go through tumultuous, distressing relationships, but we rebound, don’t we? Our hearts rebound with a belief that it’s still there and it can be achieved and how wonderful when it comes again.

What she doesn’t want in a man anymore

I don’t want to worry anymore. I don’t want to doubt, I don’t want to suspect. I don’t want all those things that we did in our 20s. I can’t imagine feeling again what I felt then, which was jealous, suspicious. You grow out of it like you grow out of a pair of pants.

She has a new sweetheart

I just got a black lab puppy, so that’s taking up my whole time, and I just can’t wait to wake up in the morning and be with him and train him.

Turning 60 next year doesn’t faze her

I don’t see it as the end of an era. It’s just another number that’s a little bit bigger. It hasn’t shifted me in any way because I feel like I did that shift when I was 50, where I said, “I’m going to do it my way.”

Her best advice involves failure

I’d say that no matter the age, it’s OK to fail, it’s not shameful. Human error and mistakes happen all the time. You have a chance to go again.

In her new streaming series, she’s a mom leery of her son’s love interest. She can relate.

My character has the perfect son—she’s obsessed with him. When he brings home a new girlfriend, she’s suspicious. It evolves from there. As a mom [to Dylan, 34, and Hopper, 32], I’ve had that sixth sense of “not quite sure she’s great for my son...” One banal thing and I’ve blown it out of proportion. But never to the extent of The Girlfriend ... it’s a shocker.

She didn’t think her kids would ever go into showbiz

My kids were on film sets their whole lives, and they said from a very young age, “I’ll never be an actor. I would never be in this business.” And sure enough, they’re both actors now, and they’re both really good.

Her perfect day off is movie-free

Not working would be good. Not having 10 emails every 50 minutes to answer. Before I got long COVID, I’d start the day with hot yoga, then get a great lunch and see a friend, then take a nice walk—I’m in England [filming The Girlfriend], so the walks are beautiful here. Then I’d go to a pub for dinner and just flow through the day, feeding off things that are out there, breathing it all in.

About Movies for Grownups

AARP’s advocacy work includes fighting ageism in Hollywood and encouraging the entertainment industry to tap into the unique perspectives and talents that actors, writers and producers who are 50 or older bring to their work. AARP’s annual Movies for Grownups Awards, telecast on PBS, celebrates the achievements of the 50-plus community in film and television. This year’s honorees included best actress Oscar winner Demi Moore, 62 (The Substance), and best actor Oscar winner Adrien Brody, 52 (The Brutalist).

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Natasha Stoynoff is an award-winning journalist and New York Times best-selling coauthor of 15 books who frequently writes about celebrities and culture for AARP The Magazine. Her most recent book is Bones: Anorexia, Anxiety, and My Path to Self-Love, with Robyn Shumer.