Tea Leoni felt the pressure to be sexually alluring to younger men in her 30s thanks to an inappropriate remark made by moviemaker Brett Ratner.

The actress discovered 20-something Ratner was telling his friends and peers that his leading lady in 2000 movie The Family Man was "doable", despite her age - and the saucy comment made her fixate on staying sexy as she aged.

She tells More magazine, "Ratner, whom I really like, by the way, was going around telling people that despite my age, I was 'still doable'. I think I was 34 then. And he was something like 28.

"I asked myself, ‘Do I still care about that?' And at that time, I did. I felt that pressure to be 'doable'. It was the meanest thought I'd had for myself in a long time."

But Leoni eventually "moved past" that period in her life and insists she's now happy to grow old gracefully: "Chasing youth is a war I'm not going to win. It's not like I'm thrilled to turn around and catch my can (face) in the mirror, but I can see now how much of my happiness could be a victim of trying to stay young and desirable. And it feels like peace and victory to be relieved of that burden."