Editor’s Note: Cybill Shepherd, of The Last Picture Show, Moonlighting, Cybill, the one-woman show "Curvy Widow" and "The L Word," is starring in the movie "Mrs. Washington Goes to Smith," which airs on the Hallmark Channel Saturday, August 1, at 9 PM. Her sitcom, "Cybill," can be seen daily on Lifetime. An accomplished singer, Cybill performs on the album Songs From the Cybill Show. She is also an author, and her autobiography, Cybill Disobedience, will soon be available as an e-book. Cybill recently sat down with wOw to talk about resilience, the path to authenticity, a new way to approach relationships, her biggest regret … and her wish for the future.

WOW: Cybill, thank you for joining us. We adore you over at wowOwow, and are thrilled that we have the opportunity to sit down and talk with you.

CYBILL: I’m happy to be here.

WOW: The New York Times recently called you resilient, and talked about how over the course of your career different things would knock you down, but you would always bounce back, no matter what. How did you do that? What was going through your mind as you were making the decision to launch yourself back into the spotlight? And what advice would you have for other women who are trying to do the same?

CYBILL: Certainly for me at the beginning of my career, I kind of faked it to make it. It was 1968, I had just graduated from high school the summer before and I went to New York and won Model of the Year and became enormously successful as a model – by pretending that I was the most intelligent, sexiest, most beautiful woman in the world and projecting that in the photos. Now the truth is that I had a lot more growing up to do, but that pretending, that convincing, acting, helped me get my first role in "The Last Picture Show." But as I’ve grown up over the years I’ve realized I don’t have to pretend that, because nobody’s that in the world, so I’ve become more authentic. I would periodically go through a time in my career where something would happen that was very discouraging – like, oh I don’t know, a movie I did nobody cared about, or I got terrible reviews, and I would get really down. But I found that I would let myself give up, and somehow it seemed to always last just about two weeks because something would come along – not necessarily a huge thing – but something would come along that would encourage me again.

WOW: Something that somebody would say to you or a new opportunity, perhaps?

CYBILL: It could be something that someone said to me or someone that was really understanding and kind; it could have been just the idea of getting a small part in "Fantasy Island" at a certain point. At least it was an acting job. So I think it’s OK to give up, but try not to give up for longer than two weeks.

WOW: Give yourself two weeks as some downtime and then buck up?

CYBILL: Everybody has their own formula. But basically it’s OK to give up for a while. Just don’t give up for too long.

WOW: In that same interview something you said kind of jumped out at me: You said there’s an element to being beautiful that can cause you to be emotionally underdeveloped. Have you — since those early days when you were "faking it" — have you matured?

CYBILL: I’ve had three children, I’ve been through ten years of therapy and five years of analysis and I’ve worked very hard. I do believe I’m really coming into my own in the sense that I don’t have to pretend, that for me personally just being who I am with my imperfections – that’s acceptable. So my sense of authenticity has become stronger.

WOW: And this is a recent development?

CYBILL: I started working on that when I became a mother for the first time with Clementine, who is now playing Mackenzie on "The Young and the Restless." When she was born I had to suddenly grow up a lot. I think we parents find that, and the fact that the center of the universe, when you have a child, shifts from yourself to your child. That in itself is really a step toward love and understanding. We’re all trying to learn how to love in a better, more open way.

WOW: Speaking of love and of emotions and maturing, who makes for a better lover, Cybill – an older man or a younger man?

CYBILL: I would hate to have to choose. I did have a period in my life where I had a younger man, a middle-aged man and an older man.

WOW: All at the same time?