Gillian Anderson spent a day ''weeping'' over her youth.

The 45-year-old actress thinks it was healthy to take the time to mourn the fact she is getting older and can now ''embrace'' the next stage of life.

She explained to Glamour magazine: ''I had a very pathetic/ existential moment a few years ago. I'd been filming something where I was a couple of decades older than everybody else and I remember spending a day mourning my youth - literally weeping. Afterwards I talked to women about it and found that it's not uncommon and potentially a healthy thing to do.

''Because as long as you can get to a point where you're able to embrace what the next stage is, and you're not constantly obsessing over trying to get back to looking a certain way, then it's fine.''

And the actress admitted she first mistook signs of ageing for an allergic reaction.

She said: ''I remember in 2009 doing 'A Doll's House' and sitting in front of the mirror on the first day of rehearsals and telling the actress beside me, 'Something's happened to my face! I've had an allergic reaction. I've swollen up.' It was this sudden realisation that I was getting old. Since that day I've started using face creams. Until then, I had two decades worth of creams unopened in my bathroom.''