Virginia Madsen Wants Your Vote

(CBS)  While other actors are out stumping for their favorite presidential candidate, Virginia Madsen just wants people to vote for their own choice.

"It doesn't really feel effective to me to go out there as an actor and say my opinion about a candidate," the actress told CBSNews.com. "I'm more effective with that in my personal life. Publicly I want everyone to be involved in the process."

The Oscar-winner has recorded a PSA for the non-partisan League Of Women Voters, in a campaign to promote the League's vote411.org Web site.

"I always felt like voting is not a privilege - it's a responsibility," she said. "Maybe that was just the way I was raised."

Madsen said that in the past, she's been saddened by what she saw as a growing apathy around the country and couldn't understand why it seemed some people felt like their voice didn't matter.

Now, she said, things are looking up.

"This year I've really seen this changed and that was so exciting for me, that people were lining up for the primary, that just made me so proud of my country," she said.

The voting awareness campaign is sponsored by the makers of Botox, for whom Madsen is a paid spokeswoman.

Madsen was offered the mouthpiece job after she'd been talking openly in interviews about her use of the anti-wrinkle treatment.

"I was like, 'why are we supposed to be hush-hush about plastic surgery or these products?'" she said. "Why are we supposed to be embarrassed? This all comes from old stigmas that were attached (to aging)."

She said that she only accepted the gig as a spokeswoman because her focus has been to promote the safe use of the product.

"I really didn't feel comfortable saying 'yay' I use it, I wanted to say what my experience with it is." said Madsen. "It's not just your beauty, it's your health and we really have to take care when it comes to our health with all the choices that we make."

Look for Madsen to appear in a multi-platform campaign for the product beginning this week on television, in print and on the Web.

As for acting, Madsen's next big project is a film about aviator Amelia Earhart opposite Hillary Swank in the title role. Madsen plays Dorothy Putnam who, along with her husband, befriended Earhart.

"Dorothy and George Putnam were great friends with Amelia. They had a 20-year marriage and it just sort of petered out," she said. "Dorothy was having a fabulous time with a much younger man - a woman ahead of her time - and so George and Amelia became more romantic after their marriage was over. It certainly would not be any part of the truth if they wanted to depict Amelia as stealing somebody's man because she was so not that and she and Dorothy were great friends."

The film is directed by Mira Nair ("Monsoon Wedding").

"She's a very inspiring person to be around and really the only one who could direct this film just like Hilary is the only one who could play Amelia," she said.

Madsen said it's still difficult for women of any age to find good roles in Hollywood.

"The younger women may have the abundance of parts, but they rarely get to play three-dimensional characters or realistic women," she said. "I went through that and I remember how uncomfortable it was to play the little ingénue because it was really hard to find something real, to find a role that you had something to say."

She said there are juicier roles for more mature women, but there aren't many jobs there either.

"They are not telling our stories. I think men are fascinated with women, I don't know why they don't make more movies about us," she said. "There's always hope and there are good movies being made. I see that when there's rules to be changed, women often change the rules for themselves."

[keithle1]

Do not degrade & defile Virginia Madsen with your stupid, inane, pathetic, silly talk about your godawful dating site.

Gets tough for actresses when they hit 40. Almost impossible to find good roles. So much competition. Unless you''re Meryl Streep, it''s not easy at all. End up playing someone''s boring, pain-in-the-butt, meddlesome mother. Or the maiden aunt that no man wants to marry.

[ferry123-2009]

OMG, she looks so hot and super pretty.. It seems that girl is dating online now. I saw her
profile on famous dating site "tallkiss.com" last week.

[keithle1]

She''s a hottie.

But what if you don''t like either Presidential candidate? Should you just pick one for the sake of voting?

Vote! Don''t think about it, just vote! Vote for the American Communist Party. Write in Britney Spears. We don''t care. Just vote!

VOTE, D A M N YOU!!!!

[dan9111]

This article is counter to the spirit of Electric Dreams and liberty itself -- there isn''t even a feeling of what love is. There is only rape. It is a pity Viginia Madsen is condoning the violent action of government,and I hope she reconsiders some important facts. If the government would improve, even with their present disregard for liberty, then it would make equal sense to suppose joining the mafia would improve the mafia.

What is being suggested, that involvement is inherently beneficial, is only true without coercive acts. The government today does not preserve liberty, but restricts it using guns and prisons, with often no purpose other than to attack even peaceful behavior that it dislikes. Maybe it is smoking which is a disgusting habit (but not worth aiming a gun at somebody over). Endless war, even worse, perversion and welfare with Democratic spending, is the result of the voting process. It is driven by compulsive hate of the citizen, not love of liberty. With good idealism swept aside, and voting an `accepted` way to do violence, peaceful citizens have been attacked. The prescription Virginia has for young people is one that is very good -- but only when the process is open to all without restriction, media-led or otherwise. Virginia has over-generalized. Perhaps one best ignore all that is said about voting being good until the government hatred is seen by all. Once our politicians are weeded out, we can vote for leaders who are not ideology-driven killers.

[misssuzq]

Blonde, female and OMG - she has a working brain!

Along with that, I want people to vote for who they believe is the right person for the job.

Not blindly play follow the leader and vote only for their party.

That is foolish and how the wrong people are elected into office in the first place.

[kevsan1]

I would watch Virginia in anything! Get her more good roles, Hollywood!