Andie MacDowell's managers told her 'it's not time' for her to go gray yet. She disagreed.

• Andie MacDowell said she embraced her salt and pepper hair during the pandemic.
• Her managers weren't on board with her new look. She disagreed.
• "I'm going to be more powerful if I embrace where I am right now," she told Vogue.

There are always striking sights at the Cannes Film Festival, but at this year's fest Andie MacDowell showed up in the south of France with one of the most inspiring looks - her natural gray hair.

The "Groundhog Day" star, known for her thick black wavy hair, walked the red carpet for her upcoming movie "Annette" with salt and pepper locks and in the process instantly turned heads. She admits her new look was something that her team tried to talk her out of embracing.

"My managers had actually said to me, 'It's not time,'" MacDowell told Vogue of going gray. "And I said, 'I think you're wrong, and I'm going to be more powerful if I embrace where I am right now.'"

MacDowell, 63, said her choice to go gray came to her during the pandemic.

"At the very beginning of quarantine, my hair started growing and every time my kids would see me, they kept telling me I looked bada-- with my gray hair," she said. "I felt like it was appropriate for my personality and just who I am."

But that doesn't mean at first she didn't consider going the more conventional route of many female stars and try to hide any indication of natural aging.

"At first I was so cautious because I didn't want anybody to be upset, and I was trying to figure out how I could wear wigs to please people," MacDowell said. "But then once I did it, it was just so clear to me that my instincts were right because I've never felt more powerful. I feel more honest. I feel like I'm not pretending."

MacDowell said she also took to Google to see how other famous females are sporting salt and pepper hair. And what she found was that there were a lot of men sporting the look but no women. So she turned to social media to find inspiration there instead.

"All these people on Instagram that are going silver, I started looking at them," she said. "I was looking at real women out there who were transitioning to gray, as well as younger women in their 50s who were choosing to go natural. You could see the before and afters, and I like the afters."