Sharon Stone isn't trying to look like she's in her twenties, she's simply striving to be the best she can at her age.
"We've got 400,000 girls with beachy blonde hair, the same nose, gigantic lips, implants in their cheeks, and little Chicklets for teeth. Are they really prettier?" the 55-year-old Stone muses in the March issue of Shape magazine while looking stunning on the cover in a bikini, paired with a black mesh cover-up by Bailey44 and sky-high espadrille sandals.
The sexy star of the 1992 thriller Basic Instinct admits she has come to terms with the aging process but her road to acceptance hasn't been without bumps.
"It hasn't been easy," the blond beauty confessed to the mag. "There was a point in my 40s where I went into the bathroom with a bottle of wine, locked the door, and said, 'I'm not coming out until I can totally accept the way I look right now.'"
She continued, explaining how traumatic she found the entire process before she chose to accept—instead of resent—her age.
"I examined my face in the magnifying mirror, and I looked at my body, and I cried and cried and cried," she confessed. "Then I said to myself, 'You're going to get old now. How do you want to do that?'"
Stone made a conscious choice to take control of her age, and clearly, the results have paid off as she flaunts her flawless figure on the magazine's latest cover.
"I thought, 'I'd like to age like a dancer,'" she said. "I want to keep my body in shape like that. I want to do the work. I like to dance and stretch. And I'm going to the gym," adding, "Every time I exercise, I do something different based on which areas need to get in motion."
As for her diet? The actress enjoys "porterhouse steak, rib eyes and New York strip," which she says "works" for her because she has "very low cholesterol and very low blood pressure."
"I also eat fish and cheese," Stone said. "I like clean food prepared as simply as possible."
Maintaining a healthy appearance has also meant giving up things she once enjoyed, such as alcohol.
"I used to love wine, but I don't drink at all now," she admitted. "I think, at a certain point, it's better for women not to have any alcohol because it can make your face, breasts and midsection get very bloated."
And she also has sage advice for other women who are having trouble coming to terms with their age.
"This idea that being youthful is the only thing that's beautiful or attractive simply isn't true," she said. "I don't want to be an 'ageless beauty.' I want to be a woman who is the best I can be at my age."