Keeley Hawes doesn't want to act "forever".
Keeley Hawes is considering a career change
The 46-year-old actress is still passionate about her career, but now she's getting older, she admitted there are "other things" she'd like to take the time to pursue.
She told You magazine: "I don’t want to do it forever.
"I love it, I’ve been really lucky but over the past couple of years, like lots of people, you think, “God, life is short and you’re only here once” – if you believe that, which I do – and there might be other avenues to explore.
"I’ll be 50 in a minute. There might be other things out there for me."
The 'Crossfire' actress is "excited" about getting older and entering the next phase of her life.
She said: "I’m excited about it. It feels different these days. Menopause was a shadowy sort of thing that no one talked about and now it’s a different world. Women used to have a horrible time. Now it’s a conversation. Really, it’s an honour to be getting older, isn’t it?"
The 'Bodyguard' star - who has three children with husband Matthew Macfadyen - has joined David Tennant, Richard E. Grant and Lesley Manville in signing an open letter from the Acting Your Age campaign calling for parity between the sexes because she thinks there needs to be a lot more work done to represent older women on screen.
She said: "We have to make the odds better for women.
"There is still glaring inequality on our screens. Women’s stories don’t stop after 45. Their lives don’t become less interesting, but the demand for older actresses and presenters drops off statistically. That’s an injustice to those performers and the audience who should be represented."
Keeley thinks the industry has changed for the better for women overall.
She said: "I've witnessed and called out racism, misogyny, sexism, harassment and bullying.
"No one would have been able to do that 20 years ago for fear of losing their job, or being seen as difficult."
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