- Actress Paget Brewster, 56, spoke to Good Housekeeping about beauty and aging on TV.
- The Criminal Minds: Evolution star revealed the story behind her gray hair as Emily Prentiss in the Paramount+ reboot.
- The star also shared some of her favorite affordable beauty products.
When it comes to celebrity beauty, Hollywood is always looking for new faces stepping into the spotlight. But what about the stars who've been in the entertainment industry for some time? As actress Paget Brewster shares with Good Housekeeping, some studios are finally embracing more realistic beauty standards on TV.
Starring as Emily Prentiss in the Criminal Minds franchise, viewers saw the 56-year-old sport dark brunette hair for the first 15 seasons. But as she gets on Zoom for our interview, Paget doesn't look exactly like her character did back in the day. She instead proudly shows her gray hair on camera, and it's in line with how viewers see her on the Criminal Minds: Evolution reboot.
Given how Paget's character's look has changed over the years, we asked her why she decided to showcase her natural hair on television. As Paget explained exclusively to GH, the choice stemmed from her experience while filming the final season of Criminal Minds.
"On the original series, I wore a wig for the last year," she shared. "I thought our show was over and we weren't going to continue. I wanted to see what work was out there and I wanted to look different from Prentiss. So I grew out my gray to see how it would go."
While Paget enjoyed rocking her gray hair in public, Criminal Minds: Evolution was rebooted on Paramount+ in 2022. At the time, she had to decide whether to go back to Prentisss' original color or stick with her natural hair.
"I said to our showrunner Erica Messer, 'Do you want the wig? You let me take the Prentiss wig and I can bring that back,'" she noted about that time. "She said, 'Well, I like the gray, but the studios have to decide.' Eventually both CBS and Paramount+ saw a preliminary shot, and they all said they loved it."
As for how Paget felt about the network's decision, she was delighted to quietly showcase how she felt about aging on the small screen. What's more, she added that showcasing her real hair has garnered more support than she expected.
"I was actually surprised by the network's reaction," she added in hindsight. "It was a shift that I was not expecting, and I'm still impressed by it. I was perfectly ready to put a wig on, so it was impressive that Paramount+ was like, 'Do it! Let's go gray!'"
As for how else Paget is accepting aging on her own terms, she reveals that La Roche-Posay Anthelios Tinted Sunscreen and Vaseline Intensive Care Nourishing Moisture Body Lotion are essential products for her self-care. But above all, she's just happy to display what aging and beauty are really about, no matter where the support comes from.
"Receiving the support from our fans and the people I work with and for has been so helpful," she concluded about going gray on TV. "It just makes me feel stronger about my decision. If everyone had said it was awful, I probably would've had a struggle. So, it means a lot."
Shop Paget Brewster's favorite beauty products below:
La Roche-Posay Anthelios Tinted Sunscreen
Vaseline Intensive Care Nourishing Moisture Lotion
As the entertainment and news associate editor for Good Housekeeping, Adrianna (she/her) writes about everything TV, movies, music and pop culture. She graduated from Yeshiva University with a B.A. in journalism and a minor in business management. She covers shows like The Rookie, 9-1-1 and Grey's Anatomy, though when she’s not watching the latest show on Netflix, she’s taking martial arts or drinking way too much coffee.
