Her daily routine is simple, not soft
Burstyn also talked about exercise during an appearance last Tuesday on Live With Kelly and Mark. Speaking with Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos, The Exorcist star said she still works out every day and especially likes walking in New York City’s Central Park.
“That’s how you get to be 93 and still kicking,” she told the hosts.
It is a tidy line, but Burstyn has been consistent about the larger point. In a 2023 conversation with her Law & Order: Organized Crime co-star Christopher Meloni for Interview magazine, she pointed to eating well, becoming vegetarian, and steering clear of alcohol, smoking and drugs as major choices.
“That’s what I decided after doing all those bad things for a couple of decades,” she said at the time.
Burstyn also told Meloni that she keeps her mind engaged through reading, creative work and a social life. The advice is not glamorous, which may be why it sounds suspiciously practical.
She has also questioned Hollywood’s ageism narrative
In that same Interview conversation, Burstyn said her career was busier than she could remember, even as she was approaching 91.
“This is so bizarre. I turn 91 in December and I’m busier than I can ever remember being at any point in my career,” she told Meloni. “And I don’t understand it at all. I mean, what’s all this stuff about ageism in Hollywood? How did I get left out of it?”
When Meloni asked why she thought the work kept coming, Burstyn offered a characteristically dry theory.
“I don’t know, except possibly that everybody else who could play those parts has already died, so I’m the only actress still standing who can play the great-grandmother or something,” she said.
Asked what keeps her excited to work, she said she starts each day with gratitude.
“I try to have the first words out of my mouth be, ‘Thank you,’” Burstyn said. “Thank you that I’m alive. Thank you that I’m safe. Thank you that I’m healthy. Thank you that I’m 90 and still going. Thank you for my doggies. I mean, I have a lot to live in a state of gratitude for.”
Her Law & Order run is part of the story
Burstyn played Bernadette “Bernie” Stabler, the mother of Christopher Meloni’s Detective Elliot Stabler, in the Law & Order universe. She first played the role in the season 10 Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode “Swing,” a performance that won her the Primetime Emmy Award for outstanding guest actress in a drama series.
She later became a recurring guest star on Law & Order: Organized Crime beginning with the spinoff’s second season in 2021. NBC announced last month that Organized Crime had been canceled after five seasons.
Burstyn’s next screen role is in the upcoming drama Place To Be, which also stars Taika Waititi, Pamela Anderson, Édgar Ramírez, Lena Waithe, Murray Bartlett and Maika Monroe.
