She’s always been gorgeous and has been labeled an icon on too many occasions to keep tabs, but Michelle Pfeiffer has never been happier than she is now, having crossed the dreaded 50 threshold. As she reveals in the latest issue of InStyle magazine, the actress knows beauty has nothing to do with growing old – but more than plenty with hard work and dedication.

Michelle, who has been happily married to television producer, creator and writer David E. Kelly for two decades, says she’s learned a lot in the many years she spent in the spotlight. One thing would be, for instance, that one has to accept oneself as such because otherwise no one else would. It took her, for one, many years to learn that growing old does indeed do things to one’s looks – but she got here and is happier than ever.

“It took me about eight years to feel it was okay to look my nicest. To think, I’m just going to enjoy this. The older I get, the more I like hearing it. There’s this tremendous pressure off [after age 50] – you deserve to have a wrinkle, you deserve to have a little pooch on your tummy.” Michelle tells the mag about being constantly told how incredibly beautiful she is, almost more stunning than she was when she was younger.

It’s not without effort that Michelle has gotten to reap these seeds, as she also says. Unlike other women who are genetically blessed to have a gorgeous body throughout their entire life no matter what they do, or, oppositely, unlike those who claim they do but secretly sweat their little hearts out at the gym to look their best, Michelle is candid: she works out and she works out a lot to stay in shape. Even with this, she knows she will never have the same body she once had, but that’s not to say that she’s pining for it or anything like that.

“There are women who just genetically have beautiful bodies – it seems to us they don’t have to work out. I personally have to work at it. I’m doing all the right things. I do cardio and strength training, a little bit of weights. I mix it up, but I can’t push myself the way I used to.” Pfeiffer says for InStyle. The accompanying photo spread clearly shows that, whatever Michelle is doing and no matter how much it costs her, it is certainly working since she’s gorgeous.

See here for the entire interview with Michelle Pfeiffer, as well as for more photos.