Actress Michelle Pfeiffer looks absolutely stunning at the age of 51 in the new cover of the latest issue of InStyle Magazine (July 2009). Michelle talks about her image, keeping in shape, husband David E. Kelley and her new movie “Cheri”, where she plays a 20’s cougar dating a guy 24 years her junior.

Here are some highlights from Michelle Pfeiffer’s InStyle interview:

On getting told she’s beautiful: “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.”

On keeping her body in shape: “I have to work at it…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.”

On playing an older seductress opposite 26-year-old Rupert Friend in the upcoming film Cheri: “I so hate the term [cougar]! Colette wrote these novels [about older women with younger men] so long ago, but even today they’re ahead of their time in the way we perceive women’s power and sexuality.”

On her husband of fifteen years, television producer David E. Kelley: “Can you imagine, for 20 years, trying to stay mysterious in your relationship? That’s the worst advice I’ve ever heard. Of all the people in your life you don’t want to hide from, it’s your partner.”

[images: InStyle]