Andie MacDowell Doesn't Take Her Hit SeriesThe Way Homefor Granted: 'It's Nice at My Age' (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Photo:Arnold Jerocki/Getty

Arnold Jerocki/Getty

Andie MacDowellis trying to adjust her camera for a Zoom call.

“Doggone it,” she says in her southern accent with a playful sigh as she studies the screen through her glasses. The actress and former model, 66, is home in South Carolina for the holidays, having wrapped season 3 of Hallmark’s hit dramaThe Way Home.

MacDowell stars as Del Landry in ‘The Way Home’.Hallmark Media/Photographer: Peter Stranks

Hallmark Media/Photographer: Peter Stranks

“I get so excited when I’m walking onto set,” she tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue. “It’s nice at my age and after all this time to have that feeling of joy. I’m very conscious of it, so I try to share it and tell everybody how lucky we are.”

Despite four decades as an actress, MacDowell is the first to insist she got lucky. “It’s a miracle I made it,” she says. “I’m not going to take anything from me, but I had to overcome some really huge hurdles.”

Raised in South Carolina, MacDowell was already a successful model (she’s L’Oréal’s longest-reigning spokesperson) when she won a breakthrough role as Jane in 1984’sGreystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes, but the critics were harsh. “I could have easily given up,” she says. “This business is really cruel. The things that they wrote about me were just terrible.”

MacDowell with Hugh Grant in ‘Four Weddings and a Funeral’.Collection Christophel / Alamy Stock Photo

Collection Christophel / Alamy Stock Photo

Yet, the naysayers only bolstered MacDowell’s determination to “prove to the casting directors that I was not trash, that I was valuable,” she says. Her career trajectory changed when she won the role of a sexually passive housewife in 1989’sSex, Lies and Videotape, co-starringJames Spader, and the film spawned more unforgettable leading roles in ’90s classics likeFour Weddings and a FuneralandGroundhog Day.

Rainey Qualley, honoree Andie MacDowell and Margaret Qualley attend the National Women’s History Museum’s 8th Annual Women Making History Awards on March 08, 2020.Rachel Murray/Getty

Rachel Murray/Getty

In the years since, she’s balanced her career with motherhood, having raised three children she shares with ex-husbandPaul Qualley, whom she divorced in 1999. While her sonJustin, 38, opted for a life out of the spotlight, daughtersRainey Qualley, 35, andMargaret Qualley, 30, followed in their mom’s footsteps, and Andie costarred with Margaret in 2021’sMaid.

MacDowell with Bill Murray in ‘Groundhog Day’.Columbia/courtesy Everett Collection

Columbia/courtesy Everett Collection

“I still struggle,” she explains. “Sometimes I’m really hard on myself. I’m my absolute worst critic. But sometimes it feels like I’m flying.”

The Way Homeis now streaming on Hallmark+ and Peacock.

source: people.com