Magic Mike XXL star Andie MacDowell ignored roles as she was 'afraid to be too provocative' after growing up where 'to be sexual was dirty'

US actress also criticised use of ‘cougar’ - claiming it was 'unnecessary' and 'demeaning'

MacDowell is currently promoting latest film Magic Mike XXL (Getty )

Andie MacDowell has revealed she ignored potential roles as a young actress because she was “afraid to be provocative” after growing up in a culture “where to be sexual was dirty.”

The US actress, 57, best known for her role in Richard Curtis’s Four Weddings and a Funeral, spoke to The Guardian ahead of the release of her latest film, Magic Mike XXL.

MacDowell was raised in a small town in South Carolina and started out as a model before branching into acting with a number of critically acclaimed roles.

Her best received – and the one she remains proudest of – was Steven Soderbergh’s Sex, Lies and Videotape in which she played a repressed housewife.

The actress claimed she was able to tap into the character’s psyche as a result of her upbringing: “I grew up in a culture where to be sexual was dirty.

"And I was also afraid of embarrassing my children. I was so afraid what people would say about me in my community. This was my way of thinking because I grew up around that kind of pressure, of purity.

“That was so much my childhood that I was afraid to be too provocative."

MacDowell also criticised the word ‘cougar’, claiming it was “unnecessary” and “demeaning.”

“I think it’s unfair that we don’t have a male equivalent,” she continued. “I think the idea that men get more handsome and sexier as they get older is a fallacy.”