Andie MacDowell talks to herself out loud whenever she is ''starting to panic''.

The 57-year-old actress - whose birth name is Rosalie Anderson MacDowell - adopted the motivating technique after reading about it in a psychology magazine and she finds it very ''cathartic''.

Andie said: ''I love the study of ego. It's a very cathartic way to live your life. Because we are victimised by what the world throws at us ... And projection. People project all kinds of cuckoo things on to actors.

''I use my name, Rose. If I'm starting to panic, I go, 'Uh Rose - you've got this.' It calms you down.''

Currently starring in 'Magic Mike XXL' as Nancy, an outrageously flirty mother, Andie admits she ''has a problem'' with the label cougar given to older women who date younger guys.

Andie - who has been married twice but is currently single - insists there is a double standard when it comes to the scrutiny age-gap relationships between mature ladies and younger men are subjected to and it needs to stop.

Speaking in an interview with The Guardian newspaper, mother-of-three Andie said: ''I have a problem with the word (cougar). Yeah, I just think it's unnecessary. It's demeaning.

''I think the idea that men get more handsome and sexier as they get older is a fallacy. There's no difference. We're the same. It was a way to empower men and disempower women. And that's changing, because if I want to date someone that's 20 years younger than me, I can do that now.''