Rosario Dawson Gets Real: “It Shouldn't Be A Luxury To Treat Yourself Well"

You can blame the picture-perfect advertisements and Facetuned photos on social media for the impossible beauty standards that exist today, but it's long been a practice placed upon people in Hollywood — a practice Dawson says is slowly shifting.

"I had an aha moment way earlier [in my career] where I noticed these unrealistic ideals," Dawson said. "I used to have these funny conversations with my manager about it because I'd go into these auditions with a turtleneck sweater on and they'd be like, 'Can she wear something that shows her form a little better?' I'm like, 'Are you kidding? I look exactly the same.' I've spoken a lot to the abuse we put upon people in this industry. It's affecting the actors and the actresses and the models and everybody in this standard of beauty that is impossible for most human beings. It is really unhealthy. Then that perpetuates through the entire populous at large. It's why this idea of self-care and wellness is so important, but we need to change our mindset first."

With a diverse range of movie and TV roles comes a smattering of beauty looks, which happens to be one of Dawson's favorite parts of the filming process. "I've gotten to do really extreme character stuff — where I'm in prosthetics or being really degraded because I'm playing someone with a drug addiction or whatever it may be — and then other times it's a clean vibe like in Jane the Virgin or a sexy vibe like in Sin City," she said.

"But I've never totally connected to the power of a character before more than with this role I'm playing right now for a show I'm producing for USA called Briarpatch. The director had this very particular idea of me coming off of the plane in this white power suit thrown over my shoulders and long hair. She kept sending me pictures of Bianca Jagger and saying, 'This is what you have to look like.' At first I was going, 'This doesn't make any sense. She's going back for her sister's funeral. They're going to this sleepy town in Texas. Yes, she works for a senator and she lives in DC now, but if she was going down for her sister's funeral, she'll probably want to look more like she did at home.' Then we were watching it later and it was like, 'Damn, I look pretty fly. I've been getting off planes wrong my whole life.' That made me feel good."

One of the reasons she's decided to partner with Burt's Bees is the brand's emphasis on self-care and rebalancing the skin and body — an important lesson Dawson had to learn the hard way. "I grew up in an abandoned building, so I thought shelter, food, and those basic things are important," she said. "One of the things I've noticed after so many years with that mentality is that I'm too used to pushing past my discomfort because you've got to get things done. It's too much of a compromise. I ended up hitting too many walls and recognized I was running on empty in a lot of really critical areas."

"I've recognized that what's also important is your relationship to your community and your own self-care — that's just as important as having a roof over your head. Practices like meditation and just general mindfulness are critical, at least for me, because otherwise you're crawling over the finish line and collapsing. That does no good for anyone."

According to Dawson, self-care is also about eating well and living holistically with her beauty routine: "You think about Whole Foods — that is how peasants used to eat," she said. "It's just natural healthy, normal food. That shouldn't be the most expensive; it should be ubiquitous, and it should be available and affordable for everyone."

It's partly why she's been excited to see wellness trickle into the beauty space. "I hope the trend continues to grow. It's one of the reasons why I really wanted to work with this company — they provide really great products that everyone would want to have in their day-to-day but also are working beautifully with the environment and they're giving you natural things to put on your skin. It shouldn't be a luxury to treat yourself well, and Burt's Bees is accessible and it's affordable for everybody."

Burt's Bees Hydrating Facial Mist ($13)

Like Hollywood, the landscape of beauty and politics is changing, with more and more influential women opening up about their skin and self-care regimens.

"There's this movement where women are showing up in powerful makeup where you'd never see it before — like [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] in her hoops and red lipstick," Dawson said. "I think it's beautiful. It's cool because for a long time I think people like my grandmother, who always made up her face and had her whole ritual and routine that she did every day, it was in some way she was somehow compromising her womanhood and her feminine, her independence, and her strength. And now it's kind of come back around."

One thing is for sure: attitudes surrounding expression, individuality, and perfection are changing, and Dawson sees it firsthand with her 16-year-old daughter. "It's amazing watching younger people have that moment and going, 'I still want to wear heels, but I'm going to wear platforms. I still want to wear a whole bunch of makeup, but I'm going to put my eyeliner like this.' I like how much more experimental and fun and playful beauty and being yourself has become. It's not like you're not a woman if and you're also not a woman if not. It's just you are who you are. In a lot of ways, when I grew up it was like, 'If you don't look like this, then you're not cool.' Now it's like, 'If you're being yourself and you're feeling good, then you're cool.' I love that."

She added: "My daughter, it's been so cool watching her. She wants to go to school in these amazingly beautiful, very elegant, pretty-girl outfits and then sneakers. And she thinks she looks dope. Then there are other days where she wants to wear her kitten heels. I just love that she's feeling empowered to exploring that side of herself. For me, sometimes my hesitation comes from fear or feeling protective of her. I grew up with men who'd dress up, or women who did whatever they wanted. But oftentimes it was rebellious or it was self-protection or kind of about hiding something. Now it just feels really they're just people being themselves — and that is pretty refreshing."