Readers,
In case you missed it, yesterday I had the pleasure of chatting with 86-year-old author, storyteller, actor, and TikTok star Annie Korzen on my Substack Live “show.”
In case you’re not familiar with her, Annie best known as an actress who had the recurring role of Doris Klompus on Seinfeld, and also played another character on the show, Elaine Benes’ seatmate in coach, on a miserable flight. She also appeared in Thelma with June Squibb and Parker Posey last year, a movie I really enjoyed. She’s a TikTok star, whose short, humorous videos get hundreds of thousands (and sometimes even millions) of views. This one alone has nearly 3 million views:
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She’s been a storyteller at The Moth, and she teaches storytelling and public speaking. (Stop by her website, AnnieKorzen.com, if you’d like to work with her.) She’s also the author of the memoir, The Book of Annie: Humor, Heart, and Chutzpah from an Accidental Influencer.
A year ago, Annie wrote an essay for Oldster called “Success in My Third Act”:
Success in My Third Act
Some people are overnight successes: it happens fast, and it happens early. I hate those people. I am the opposite of an overnight success. I am in my 80s and, for most part, I have been a slow-moving, long-term failure. After being a stay-at-home mom, I first started acting late in life and I’ve had a…
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I’d sent Annie The Oldster Magazine Questionnaire ahead of time, so she had a chance to consider her answers to the 20 questions. I really love her replies. Here are some of my favorites:
What she likes about being her age:
I no longer apologize for anything. All my life, I was told, you're too talkative, you're too opinionated. It's not an attractive quality, and I always apologized for it. Now, if somebody would say to me, you talk a lot, my response would be, you're absolutely right. And you know something, you should listen to what I have to say. You might get something from it.
What aging has given her:
Aging has given me wisdom. And I can look at my mistakes, which have contributed to that wisdom. I think people nowadays are too afraid to fail. Everybody gets a gold star. Everybody gets it. I mean, failing is a great learning experience. I've failed at a lot of things and it's been good for me.
How aging has affected her sense of herself:
I was brought up to think that I'm ugly because in Hollywood terms, I am. I'm a character actress, and I've always felt bad about that. I mean, if a casting call went out tomorrow for an attractive older woman, I would not be seen for it. They say I'm too charactery, too ethnic. It's all euphemism for I'm too Jewish looking. This does not apply to men, by the way, only women. But on TikTok and I found this whole new audience of Gen Z, people in their twenties. They tell me I'm beautiful—Oh, I love your hair. I love your style. Oh, your necklace is so nice. At 86 years old, this is the first time in my life that people are telling me that I'm beautiful, and I'm starting to believe them.
On her favorite age so far:
I'm kind of liking now. I'm not sure I’d go back to a younger age, because I always felt unseen. I always suffered from thinking I was talented, and not knowing how to share my talents. I always felt like a nobody. Now I feel like a somebody.
On her aging idols:
I was in a movie called Thelma. The star is June Squibb, and I've worked with her before. June is 95, and she comes to the set prepared. She knows her lines, she knows her moves. And I have another friend, Bunny Levine, who works all the time. She's a character actor. She's 96. I see these women at auditions. Then I think about Betty White, I think about Ruth Bader Ginsberg, women who just kept going. That's who inspires me. People who keep going.
On an event that had the greatest impact on her life:
The Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas hearings. Before that I thought feminists were silly. I thought feminists were ridiculous. And then I watched those hearings and I went totally the other way. The sight of those white men in suits talking to that woman the way they did, disrespecting her. I never got over it. It got me so furious. That changed that aspect of me.
On celebrating her birthday each year:
I love my birthday, and I’m very demanding. But I don't give a fuck about presents. As a matter of fact, I hate presents. I hate opening up a box and pretending to like whatever garbage is in there. I like buying my own. You want to give me a present? Either take me out to dinner, or give me a gift certificate so I can go shop. Those are the only presents I like, but I like doing stuff. I like having a whole week where I think, why don't I treat myself today to some retail therapy? Why don't I treat myself today and order in a Peking duck, which is something I wouldn't do during the year? Too fatty and too expensive. In other words, I like to have a week of treats, just a week of treats, whatever they may be. Lovely.
It’s a great interview. Check it out above. ⬆️
Thank you Ashley@Briefly, Diana, James Foreman, Naomi Yaeger, Trudi Cohen, and many others for tuning into my live video with Annie Korzen! Join me for my next live video in the app.
And thank you, Annie Korzen for joining me. 🙏 💝
