“I’m one of those people that if I'm really afraid of something, I’m like, ‘Why? What are you so afraid of?’ ” the actress said

NEED TO KNOW

• Valerie Bertinelli described her decision to pose nude for the cover of her memoir, Getting Naked, as “terrifying”
• Bertinelli said that her fear forced her to interrogate her own thoughts and perspectives about her body
• The actress spoke about the experience at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books on April 18

Valerie Bertinelli opened up about the "terrifying" decision to pose nude for the cover of her new memoir, Getting Naked.

The actress, 66, recalled the moment she made the choice to bare it all during a live Q&A event at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books on April 18.

“It was terrifying,” Bertinelli said. “But here's the deal. It's like when I was on the phone with my editor and I was saying, ‘I think because I'm calling it Getting Naked, I need to actually be naked on the cover. So I wanna try and explore that.' And she's like, ‘Great!' And then once it was out of my mouth, I kinda had to do it.”

“So I got a team together that I've worked with for a long time — hair and makeup and wardrobe … wardrobe [laughs],” she continued, adding that she eased into the moment during the shoot, which took place at her home.

“I walked in [with] like a big sweater on … so I knew that I would be comfortable,” Bertinelli said. “And at a certain point, I just said, ‘I'm just gonna do it.' ”

She went on to say that while she had fear about getting completely undressed in the moment, the feeling was both motivating and enlightening.

“I'm one of those people that if I'm really afraid of something, I'm like, ‘Why? What are you so afraid of? What is it gonna hurt you? Just do it. Who the f— cares?' " she explained.

“So I finally just did it. I did it, I'm not gonna do it again [laughs]. But it was interesting to walk through that fear and get to the other side of it,” she said.

While recently speaking to PEOPLE about the decision, Bertinelli revealed that getting disrobed at her age actually felt more comfortable than when she donned a bikini for a PEOPLE cover shoot in 2009 after she lost some 40 pounds via Nutrisystem (for which she was a spokesperson at the time).

“I was a good 20 pounds thinner and my body was definitely tighter but I think it felt better doing this,” Bertinelli told PEOPLE in March. 

“I'm never going to do it again, but it was fun to try it once. I've got this weird quirk that if I'm afraid of something I'm going to walk right through it. And I did,” she added.

Bertinelli also said that she spent “too many decades” feeling bad about her body, and the book cover helped her celebrate the fact that she finally is able to feel good in the skin she's in.

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“Part of me also feels like at this age, if I can look good, do it,” she said with a laugh. “And I don't know what I'm going to look like when I'm 80 but at 65 it looks pretty f—ing good. I think you're allowed to feel good about yourself. I have felt bad about myself for too many decades. I'm going to feel good about myself now.”

Getting Naked is available wherever books are sold.

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