Ellen Burstyn at 86: 'I'm All Right With Aging, and It Paid Off'

Favorite Burstyn flicks

Requiem for a Dream, The Exorcist, and Resurrection, which was not a really successful film but always one of my favorites. It just didn't have the proper studio support.

Ellen’s Essentials

MORGAN LIEBERMAN/Getty Images

Age: 86

Hometown: Detroit

Her start: “I was a model right out of high school and I must say I didn’t have a hard time supporting myself. I was a dancer in nightclubs, then a model, then a lead on Broadway [Fair Game, 1957]. I can’t complain about it being too hard for me.”

Triple Crown of Acting: Oscar, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore; Tony Award, Same Time Next Year; Emmy Award, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

Groundbreaker: First woman president of Actors’ Equity (1982-85)

Latest project: Inside the Actors Studio

What she’s reading: The Best American Science Writing 2012, Rachel Maddow’s Blowout, Mary Oliver, Everyday Tao, and A Beginners’ Guide to Constructing the Universe: Mathematical Archetypes of Nature, Art and Science.

Why she's still acting at 86

I take care of myself — not that I wasn't wild in my 20s and 30s, but by the time I hit 40 I had enough of that. I started exercising. I stopped drinking, smoking, and doing things that weren't healthy. And I stay very active intellectually. I read a lot and continue learning. The other thing is, I early on started playing roles older than I was, putting on aging makeup. I kind of declared I was all right with aging. It paid off. I must say I'm very pleased and very grateful that I'm 86 and still working — a lot.

How Hollywood changed

You're not dealing with movie makers, you're dealing with money makers. The film that I hope to be directing pretty soon I have been trying to get on for four years. In the 1970s when we did The Last Picture Show, Peter Bogdanovich brought the script to the movie company and they said “OK, here's a million dollars.” We weren't famous, and we made a movie that became a classic. Now you almost have to have a well-known name to get a picture made, preferably two or three.

Women take charge

When I started, the only women in the crew were the wardrobe people and script supervisor. When I did Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore in 1974, it was the first story told from a woman's point of view, ever. Even stories about women were always from a man's point of view. Now there are so many women filmmakers, writers, producers, directors.

Bucket list travel plans

When I left Detroit, my ambition was not to be an actress, my ambition was to see the world, the more exotic place the better. I spent time in Iran and Jerusalem, North Africa, Egypt, places I wouldn't be so anxious to travel in now. The places I still want to go to are Japan and Machu Picchu.

The actor she always wanted to costar with

Al Pacino. We're not quite close enough together to play lovers and not far enough apart for me to play his mother.

How to Watch it: Ellen Burstyn's interview with Al Pacino airs on Inside the Actor's Studio, Sunday, Nov. 3, 10 pm ET, Ovation TV. Check your cable guide or the channel finder: https://www.ovationtv.com/

Or download the Ovation Now TV Everywhere app.