'70s icon Ellen Burstyn shared the secret to maintaining her youthful vigor during an interview on Live with Kelly and Mark, with the legendary actress revealing that she still goes to the gym every day despite being in her 90s.
The 93-year-old shared that exercising and going for walks around Central Park in New York City allowed her to keep working onscreen at her age. "That's how you get to be 93 and still kicking," she quipped as the Live audience cheered.
Kelly Ripa joked that she was inspired by Ellen's Central Park walks and would often go looking for the star in the area. "I'll look for you in the future," The Exorcist actress said, as Kelly quipped: "You can't miss me, I'm in a giant sunhat – like in a comically large sunhat."
© Live with Kelly and Mark/ABCEllen has spent years perfecting her health routine, as she explained to Interview. "Well, the secret of that is eating well, exercising, not drinking, not smoking, not doing drugs, and deciding to live healthy," she said. "That's what I decided after doing all those bad things for a couple of decades."
"I walk my doggies. I read an awful lot. I go to concerts. I play with my friends, have people over," she added.
Another of Ellen's longevity tips is to always show gratitude. "I try to have the first words out of my mouth be, 'Thank you.' 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."
© Noam Galai/NBC via Getty ImagesEllen shot to fame in the '70s after starring in the 1973 horror film The Exorcist, which earned her an Oscar nomination. She then brought home the prestigious award in 1975 for Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, and nabbed another nomination in 2001 for Requiem for a Dream.
She is one of Hollywood's most celebrated actresses, having won an Oscar, a Tony Award and two Emmy Awards, and is revered for her ability to play complex female characters.
© FilmPublicityArchive/United ArchDespite her busy schedule at 93, Ellen tries to rest as much as possible by having "shouldless days", where she only does things out of pure enjoyment.
© GC Images"[It's a] day where there's nothing I should do, so I only do what I want to do. If it's nap in the afternoon and then watching TV and eating ice cream, I get to do it," she said on the Death, Sex and Money podcast.
© AFP via Getty Images"I figured out that we have wiring – I have wiring in my brain that calls me lazy if I'm not doing something," Ellen explained.
"That wiring is there, I haven't been about to get rid of it, but what I can do is that I can put another wire in there. I can put in 'shouldless days'. When that voice goes off – the one that says 'Oh, you're so lazy', I can turn to the other side, and say 'No. This is a shouldless day. I'm doing what I want.'"
