Why Justine Bateman Absolutely Refuses To Get Plastic Surgery

While Jason Bateman is a popular actor, modern TV fans may be less familiar with his sister Justine Bateman. Justine is a former actor who starred in the '80s sitcom "Family Ties." She also appeared in "Desperate Housewives" and "Californication." Justine then transitioned into working as a filmmaker. At the 2021 SXSW Film Festival, she released her first feature film, "Violet," which starred Olivia Munn and Justin Theroux.

Besides her thriving filmmaking career, Justine has become well-known for her candid commentary on plastic surgery and aging. In today's social media climate, there's been increasing emphasis on this topic. However, Justine was never inspired by idealistic beauty. According to her, she always admired strong, powerful performers. She told Glamour, "...I remember my dad taking us to the movies and I'd see women like Ali MacGraw, Jacqueline Bisset, and all these European actors whose confidence I was enamored with. If that's what confident women looked like, then I wanted to look like that. I was so attracted to how they behaved, how they carried themselves, how they walked."

While dozens of Hollywood stars have opted to get plastic surgery, you won't find Justine injecting fillers or Botox anytime soon. And she's made her reasoning crystal clear.

In a March 2023 interview with "60 Minutes Australia," Justine Bateman unveiled her passion for fighting conventional beauty standards and expectations. One day, Bateman discovered the internet was fixated on her aging appearance. She explained that when she googled herself for unrelated research, "autocomplete came up which was 'looks old.'" Bateman didn't agree with the internet's assessment, as she was only in her 40s at the time. But, she was still affected by this harsh criticism. On "The Drew Barrymore Show," Bateman admitted, "I made the mistake of making them right and me wrong. And it messed with my head for longer than I would've thought it could." Yet, Bateman worked through it. She added, "But I had to get to the root fears that was making me bring in that idea and making it a belief."

So, why won't Bateman get any cosmetic procedures? She noted that while she's had thoughts about getting plastic surgery, she's never been compelled to act on them. She told "60 Minutes" journalist Amelia Adams, "I am a different person now than I was when I was 20." She added, "I like looking in the mirror and seeing that evidence." Bateman later remarked, "I think I look rad. I think my face represents who I am."

Justine Bateman opened up the conversation about aging even more by writing a book called "Face: One Square Foot of Skin." She told Yahoo! Life, "I'm just suggesting through this book that a lot of the negative ideas that women have about their own faces just aren't true. So, why should we keep them alive inside ourselves?"

However, Bateman isn't interested in changing the beauty and advertising industry. In addition, she's not focused on shifting the perceptions of those who are critical of aging faces. She told Time, "I'm interested in eliminating the buttons that have existed in me or may still exist in me that react to those things." She further explained that the real issue is peoples' irrational fears, not their faces. "If you change the face, you're still going to have these fears, so why not just take care of the fears?" All in all, Bateman is committed to empowering women to feel comfortable with the aging process and own their maturing faces.