Kelly Hu: ‘I’ve Always Looked Forward to Being 50’

As a former Miss Teen USA [1985] and Miss Hawaii USA [1993], how do you look back on those pageant experiences?

It was wonderful. It was such an amazing experience for me. It doesn’t come without difficulties, of course. Especially since I was in Miss Teen USA, and at that age you're still trying to figure out who you are — making a lot of mistakes, and when you have so many people who know who you are at that point, I think it’s really difficult. I can only imagine how difficult it must be now with everybody on social media and having cameras and you cannot make a mistake without someone knowing. I know how difficult it is as a teenager to be in those shoes, but it changed my life. I have absolutely no regrets. I have nothing but gratitude … [I had] a struggling mom who was trying to raise two kids by herself, who never had less than three jobs, and it just changed everything for us. After winning the pageant, I was able to help my mom buy a condo, and it changed our entire lives.

How’s life going in your 50s?

I’ve always looked forward to being 50. I don’t know why I always felt like that was going to be a magic number for me, and it really was. I really feel so much more secure at this age. Financially, I’m more secure. I’m more secure in my career. I don’t feel like I’m desperate to try to prove myself anymore.… There’s so much wisdom that comes with [age].

Hu, seen here with costar Steve Harris, plays Atlanta detective Veronica Jin on the Starz series "BMF."

Courtesy STARZ

How are you feeling physically?

My body’s still functioning great. There are a couple of little things here and there that are happening, especially with menopause, which is a huge conversation now. I’m so glad that’s happening. It’s such a great time to be 50 and menopausal or postmenopausal, when there’s so much more information and women are talking about it and even men are getting the information — whether they like it or not. I’m so glad that there are people out there like Halle Berry who are speaking up about it and making it less of a shameful thing to talk about. Fifty is not what it used to be. I remember when I was young, 50 just seemed so old. But when you think about it, we’re only halfway there.

Are you doing anything differently?

I am a lot easier on my body than I used to be. I work out less and eat healthier. Because when I think about it, my grandmothers both lived into their 90s — both of them almost reached 100 — and neither one of them worked out a day in their life.

How about your diet?

I did start going more plant-based. I stopped eating a lot of meat. I didn’t eat a lot of red meat anyway, but I’m just trying to experiment a little bit more with my body that way, because I think also, your body changes, and what worked for you back then might not work for you right now. You have to listen to your body a little bit more and be willing to make changes in order to be in tune with your body.

What was the best advice you ever received?

There was an actor by the name of Bo Hopkins who has since passed away. I used to love quotes, I would collect quotes and put them up on my mirror. I had a book that I would jot things down in whenever I heard anything really cool. I remember [Bo] giving me part of the [Rudyard] Kipling [poem] about treating both failure and success as equal impostors [“If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster/And treat those two impostors just the same”]. I really didn’t understand it for the longest time. But I think now that I’m older, and I’ve had both failures and successes, that I really understand where that comes from. And I feel like that was so important for me to understand throughout my career — that whether or not I’m working or whether I get the job or not is not a reflection on me as a person. I think that helped to keep things in check, and it also helped to keep me humble. I also have an older brother who thinks it’s his job in life to keep me humble!