<http://schema.org/articleBody>
" Geena Davis is running behind schedule. She was detained at a gown fitting, and now the rest of her jam-packed day is off-kilter. When she finally sits down at a funky outdoor caf\u00E9 near downtown Los Angeles, wearing faded jeans, a hooded sweatshirt, and absolutely no makeup, she orders blueberry pancakes -- even though the sun has set long ago and most of her fellow patrons are eating dinner.  Then again, Davis is used to doing things a little later than most people. Having recently turned 50, she is now celebrating the sort of personal milestones that most women mark in their 30s. Married to Dr. Reza Jarrahy, an Iranian-American neurosurgeon 15 years her junior, she became a mother for the first time at age 46. Two years after the arrival of daughter Alizeh, she gave birth to twins, sons Kian and Kaiis. Just as her personal life was falling into place, her dormant career got a wake-up call when she was offered the role of Mackenzie Allen, the first female U.S. president, on the ABC series Commander in Chief. The drama became the most watched new show of the fall television season, and suddenly Davis was back in the spotlight. In January, Davis won a Golden Globe for best actress in a drama series; she accepted her award with a witty and charming speech that brought the house down. Happy marriage, beautiful babies, blooming career: Everything is, finally, right on track. &amp;quot;It just happened two decades after I thought it would,&amp;quot; Davis says with a shrug. Many people still think of her as the tough-girl heroine Thelma, whom she made famous in 1991&amp;#039;s Thelma &amp;amp;amp; Louise. But in real life, Davis has been on a long, arduous journey of self-discovery. After starting out as a model in her early 20s, she seemed to segue effortlessly into acting, going from playing a bit part in Tootsie to costarring in Beetlejuice to winning an Academy Award for her role in The Accidental Tourist at age 32. Davis followed her Oscar win with Thelma &amp;amp;amp; Louise and the feel-good baseball comedy A League of Their Own. But just when her career seemed red-hot, it suddenly began to cool. A string of box office disappointments like Cutthroat Island didn&amp;#039;t help; neither did getting older in an age-obsessed industry. By then divorced from actor Jeff Goldblum (she later married and split up with director Renny Harlin), Davis felt isolated and confused. &amp;quot;I guess I thought my career would just go on the way it had,&amp;quot; she says, shaking her wavy auburn hair. &amp;quot;But once I turned 40, I really did feel like I&amp;#039;d ceased to exist in Hollywood. I thought I&amp;#039;d have an older-woman&amp;#039;s career like Meryl Streep or Jessica Lange did. But not only weren&amp;#039;t there roles for me, there weren&amp;#039;t any for Meryl either. It was noticeable and unmistakable. And painful.&amp;quot; At the same time, not working gave Davis a chance to think about what else she might want to do with her life. She came up with two surprising answers. The first came in the form of a bow and arrow. Having been turned on to archery while making the action film The Long Kiss Goodnight in 1996, she began to pursue the hobby seriously and before long was competing in the National Trials. She came close to qualifying for the Olympics. &amp;quot;I didn&amp;#039;t realize archery would become such a big part of my life, but I got completely hooked,&amp;quot; she says.  Archery not only helped her fill her days, it sparked a sea change in the way the actress viewed herself. Davis says she had long struggled with self-esteem; when she was a teenager, her lanky six-foot frame and exotic pillow-lip looks weren&amp;#039;t exactly the norm, and she often felt like an outcast. But finding a sport she was passionate about began to heal old wounds. &amp;quot;Sports are 90 percent mental,&amp;quot; she explains, &amp;quot;and I came to realize that there was this inner dialogue I was constantly having, where I&amp;#039;d be thinking, Oh, that was a horrible shot, and people must be laughing at you and you should be so embarrassed. I realized that if I was telling myself that during archery, I was probably doing it all the time in the rest of my life. Becoming confident in my physical abilities, acknowledging that I had a right to take up space and be happy with my performance, was the final piece of the puzzle. I started to believe that people weren&amp;#039;t judging me every second of my life. I began to really like myself.&amp;quot; Emboldened by the self-esteem boost, Davis found herself drawn in to an unlikely romance with Jarrahy, who was only 27 when Davis, then 42, met him at a party. In the past, Davis says, she had found herself attracted to men whom she thought she&amp;#039;d be able to &amp;quot;fix&amp;quot; and turn into the perfect mate. &amp;quot;I was always in the type of relationship where everything was about the other person,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;d find my worth through sacrificing everything for his sake. And that had everything to do with my own feelings about myself; the guys I was with felt pretty great about themselves all on their own -- they didn&amp;#039;t need me to fix them because they weren&amp;#039;t damaged. But I sure was.&amp;quot; By the time Jarrahy came along, Davis knew that the patterns of her past were ready to be broken. &amp;quot;I finally managed to change myself, and that changed what seemed attractive to me. Reza is so different from the kind of men I used to be with. I think if I met someone now who was like the guys I was drawn to in the past, I would just start to laugh.&amp;quot;   Still, Davis admits that the considerable age difference was initially a stumbling block. &amp;quot;A relationship with him seemed a little far-fetched,&amp;quot; she says, remembering her initial attraction to the dashingly handsome doctor. &amp;quot;I remember thinking, This guy is cute -- and ridiculously young. At first, to be honest, I was just approaching it like something that would be fun. I wasn&amp;#039;t thinking too far ahead of the game. The amazing thing is, when we started to spend more and more time together, there wasn&amp;#039;t anything about our age difference that stuck out. It wasn&amp;#039;t like I was sitting there saying, &amp;#039;What do you mean, you don&amp;#039;t know who the Beatles are?&amp;#039; It doesn&amp;#039;t feel like we&amp;#039;re from different generations, and now we barely notice it at all.&amp;quot; Despite three previous marriages, Davis didn&amp;#039;t hesitate to make a fourth trip down the aisle. &amp;quot;I did say to Reza, &amp;#039;You&amp;#039;re about to become someone&amp;#039;s fourth husband. What on earth are you thinking?&amp;#039; But as for myself, I wasn&amp;#039;t nervous at all. I really did feel that I had turned a corner, that I had pulled off changes that were real and permanent. And it was exciting to know I was marrying someone who I can be cranky or selfish in front of and he doesn&amp;#039;t run screaming from the room or judge me for it. It&amp;#039;s like I discovered a whole other way to live.&amp;quot; One year after the two married, Davis&amp;#039;s life underwent another change, when the actress became pregnant. First-time motherhood in her 40s didn&amp;#039;t unnerve her; instead, the actress saw her age as an advantage. &amp;quot;I felt 100 percent that I would be such a better parent than I would have been even five years earlier and certainly ten or 20 years earlier,&amp;quot; she recalls. &amp;quot;If I&amp;#039;d had kids earlier, I could easily have become one of those mothers who overinvolve themselves and try to live life through their kids. I&amp;#039;m sure there are younger people who have figured things out long before I did, but in my case, I became a parent with exactly the right person, at exactly the right time.&amp;quot; Having twins just two years later, however, &amp;quot;was pretty daunting,&amp;quot; she says with a sigh. &amp;quot;My daughter was two when they were born, so that meant three kids under the age of three at home. And I was worried because part of me thought, Am I going to be able to love boys as much as I love my little girl? Of course, I do, and it&amp;#039;s been really wonderful. But it was overwhelming.&amp;quot; Davis also admits to feeling a bit swamped when she thinks ahead to a future of raising teenagers at an age when most people begin collecting Social Security. &amp;quot;Oh yeah, I think about that all the time,&amp;quot; she says candidly. &amp;quot;There are moments when I feel like I have a looong road ahead of me, with college and dating and driving and all of that. But then I realize that just means that I have so much time left to enjoy them. And it really does go by so quickly.&amp;quot;  Now Davis is relishing every second of her role as a mommy. Daughter Alizeh is obsessed with princesses, to the chagrin of her mother, who would rather her little girl show an interest in females who strive to do more than win the heart of Prince Charming. Still, Alizeh is already putting her own twist on the fairy tales. &amp;quot;She likes to tell stories about Snow White going into the forest, where she meets an evil witch. But then Snow White takes out a magic wand and turns the evil witch into a nice witch. It&amp;#039;s a good thought,&amp;quot; Davis says with a laugh. &amp;quot;She never wants to play princesses who are just lying there asleep or under some spell. They&amp;#039;re always very active princesses who battle dragons or evil witches.&amp;quot;  As for her parenting style, Davis is making certain not to repeat mistakes from her own childhood. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s important to me that my kids feel acknowledged,&amp;quot; says Davis, who grew up with an older brother in Wareham, Massachusetts. &amp;quot;I was raised in a generation where we were taught to stifle things. It was like, &amp;#039;Don&amp;#039;t cry.&amp;#039; Or, as soon as you fell down, you were told, &amp;#039;That didn&amp;#039;t hurt.&amp;#039; Kids were supposed to be seen but not heard, like they were furniture or pets or something. I&amp;#039;m making a point of letting my kids know it&amp;#039;s OK to express themselves. I try not to decide for them what they&amp;#039;re feeling. I want them to know they don&amp;#039;t have to hide their emotions.&amp;quot; Their mother seems to have taken that lesson to heart. Asked about turning 50, she doesn&amp;#039;t hesitate to roll her eyes and groan. &amp;quot;Actually, I am OK with it,&amp;quot; Davis says a few moments later. &amp;quot;I don&amp;#039;t exactly want to jump up and down on Oprah&amp;#039;s couch, but I&amp;#039;m at peace with it. I feel like my life has gotten better with every year that goes by, and so I really don&amp;#039;t fear getting older. And this is going to sound crazy, but I like the way I look now more than I did ten years ago. I feel like I&amp;#039;ve settled into my looks more and that I&amp;#039;m more at ease, and it shows. I&amp;#039;m not saying I&amp;#039;ll still feel that way when I&amp;#039;m 70, but for now, I&amp;#039;m pretty content.&amp;quot; Her happiness has been coming through on the set of Commander in Chief. Peter Coyote, who has guest-starred on the show, says that of all the stars he&amp;#039;s worked with, Davis is &amp;quot;my favorite. She has no entourage and no attitude. Between takes, she sits with everyone, knitting, chatting, and playing practical jokes. She is a joy.&amp;quot; Playing the president of the United States has come naturally to Davis. In 2004, she founded an activist group called See Jane, which seeks to improve the portrayals of girls and women in the media. Now she hopes her television role will inspire other changes. &amp;quot;I cannot tell you how many people ask me, &amp;#039;So do you think there will ever be a female president in real life?&amp;#039; I mean, why shouldn&amp;#039;t there be?&amp;quot; she says, her voice rising. &amp;quot;When people ask me that, it really makes me want to examine why the idea of women in power is so threatening.&amp;quot; But she won&amp;#039;t be able to get to that today. With her pancakes long since polished off, Davis needs to get home for bath time with her kids. &amp;quot;My daughter won&amp;#039;t even get her face wet, but my sons literally submerge themselves and try to swim laps in the tub. They stick their whole heads under and blow bubbles,&amp;quot; she says with a delighted laugh. &amp;quot;I can&amp;#039;t tell you how much I look forward to it.&amp;quot; She slings her bag over her shoulder and hurries off into the night. With any luck, she&amp;#039;ll be right on time. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/inspirational-stories/interviews/a17444/geena-davis-interview-arp06/>