Mary-Louise Parker on Beauty, Aging, and Helen Mirren

At age 46, Mary-Louise Parker was longing for a little midlifer advice.

Luckily, she had the chance to bond with her "Red" costar, and favorite of this column, the amazing Helen Mirren. 

"We've had tea….or maybe it was cocktails," Mary-Louise says. "OK, there was no tea involved. But we didn't curl each other's hair or listen to the Beastie Boys either.

"There's something so dark and sexy about Helen and I really value that," she says.

I ask her to get to the good part. What did Helen advise her about aging very gracefully?

"She's an icon, but she de-constructs it," she says. "The second you meet her, she wants to talk and be friends. That's the first secret – and all of us should try to be that nice." 

"She also taught me a good way to manage stress. If things get tense, she just stares at the ground," Mary-Louise marvels. "It's not in her nature to get visibly upset – and that's something all of us can learn."

PARKER ON BEAUTY

"I quit smoking and I don't drink," she says of her two biggest beauty secrets. "Otherwise, I got really lucky because I inherited my mother's great skin."

To keep her skin great, she likes Epicuren Skincare and Prevage line by Elizabeth Arden.

Mary-Louise is also a big advocate on always wearing sunblock. "You have to protect the skin you're got," she says. "I wear it all the time, even on a cloudy day, because those rays are getting to you."

In the end, she says that beauty is about "moderation. You eat the bad stuff only once in awhile. You get your sleep at night. You eat stuff like avocados, which is great for your skin."

She says her father passing away from colon cancer was a wake up call to eat better. "The key is to make the better choices every single day, so you can slip up now and then," she says.

A LITTLE ME TIME

"I've learned not to feel guilty about pleasure," she says. "That's the great part of getting older. You have a piece of cake and forget about it. Life is too short to walk around ashamed of yourself for doing something as bad as grabbing a handful of M&Ms."

The mom of two says she takes her R&R seriously.

"I have two small children, so it's hard to finish an actual whole book. That might be asking too much," she says with a laugh. "Poems are just easier."

THE GREAT MOM

Mary-Louise is the kind of great mom who has a stage in her New York home.

"I was tired of using my dining room table as the stage because you have to keep moving the salt and pepper shakers. The coffee table isn't a good alternative either.

"All day long, people are putting on shows at my home," she cries. "All I hear is, 'Ladies and gentleman, turn off your cell phones."

The actors are her son William Atticus, 7 (whose father is actor Billy Crudup) and daughter Caroline Aberash, 5, who was adopted from Ethiopia in 2007. William also pens his own screenplays.

"The other day I came home and they were putting on a musical on their new stage called 'The Absent Spaceman.' William wrote it."

She can go one better.  

"So, I suggested that they put on 'Hello Dolly,'" she shares. "But there were issues. My son is very advanced for his age. He thought I said, 'Hello, Dali' and that I wanted him to put on a musical about Salvador Dali.

"I swear to God, my hand to God, he did," she says, chuckling.

"He actually wrote his own Dali show. And he performed it while wearing a paper mustache," she says with a hearty laugh.

A NEW SEASON OF WEEDS

Her show "Weeds" returns for a new season on Showtime on June 27 at 10 p.m. EST.  

She's back as the now iconic role of Nancy Botwin, a woman who sells pot to make ends meet for her family. She has even been involved with a Mexican drug lord who likes to have very athletic TV sex.

"I love our show because it isn't just the norm," Mary-Louise says. "We don't hold back. We get a little bit out there and that's fascinating to me."

As for the new season, the strikingly pretty actress shakes her long glossy hair at the thought of revealing plot secrets.

"I don't want to give it away, but Nancy is still dealing with the law," she previews. "It gets pretty crazy. Crazier than it has been for awhile."

Even though the show is about drugs, she never touches the stuff.

 "I don't do drugs. I just stay away from that stuff. I don't need that in my life," she says. "I've never smoked it. I just don't find that type of escape to be something that's interesting."

"It's much more interesting for me to experience life," she says.

She says starring in her last film "Red" was a life changer because it was such a physical role.

 "I was falling and rolling down a hill thinking, 'I can't believe I'm doing this at my age, but I'm loving every second of it."

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