Anne Hathaway continues to express gratitude for life and exhibit a positive perspective on aging amid press for her latest film, The Idea of You slated for release next month.

According to Entertainment Tonight, the star turned 40 last November and is doing better than ever. Hathaway plays Solène in the forthcoming film, a 40-something single mother who dispels all "middle-aged" stereotypes when she falls for the lead singer of her daughter's favorite band, 24-year-old Hayes Campbell (played by Nicholas Galitzine). The "Princess Diaries" standout recently sat down with The New York Times to share her refreshing opinion on what it really means to be middle-aged in today's society.

"I don't normally talk about it, but I am over five years sober. That feels like a milestone to me. 40 feels like a gift. The fact of the matter is I hesitate at calling things 'middle age' simply because I can be a semantic stickler and I could get hit by a car later today. We don't know if this is middle age. We don't know anything."

The stunning mother-of-two considers age to be a gift rather than a burden, and is more comfortable in her skin now than she was decades ago. She told ET that she's finally figured out what life is about after years of endless pressure.

"I certainly am way more comfortable in my skin in my 40s than I was in my 20s. I felt lost in my 20s. I felt this pressure to have it all figured out and I thought that because I didn't know everything about myself, I was somehow doing something wrong. But it turns out, that's what your life's for."

So what exactly keeps the actress in such a positive headspace about growing old?

One contributing factor could be that Hathaway keeps her priorities straight and doesn't even attempt to "balance" her career and life with her husband, Adam Shulman, and their two young sons, Jonathan and Jack.

"When I started out, when I first became a mom, people were like, 'Oh, how are you going to balance it?' and I'm just like, 'Balance? What are you talking about?' One, as much as I love my career, as much as I love what I do, and you know I'm a beast about it, there's no contest."

Fans can watch Hathaway excel in Prime Video's The Idea of You out May 2nd!

Rocky Barnette