Former beauty queen/actress Halle Berry recently spoke out against the reliance on plastic surgery to create what is deemed beautiful.

'I do think we've become obsessed with beauty and the fountain of youth and, frankly, I'm really saddened by the way women mutilate their faces today in search of that,' she said.

The comments came during an advance press-conference for the London premiere of her new movie Catwoman, Berry, 37, slammed the growing obsession on pressure from a culture that pushes women to risk their health in pursuit of youth and good looks.

'I see women in their thirties getting plastic surgery, pulling this up and tucking that back,' she said. 'It's like a slippery slope - once you start you pull one thing one way and then you think, 'Oh my God, I've got to do the other side'.'

Berry’s comments are appropriately timed with the British release of Catwoman. According to the UK’s Daily Record, image-frenzied Brits have spawned an increase in the number of plastic surgeons by 2000 percent and the demand for Botox and other forms of cosmetic enhancements is also “soaring.”

The film is based around the cosmetics industry with co-star Sharon Stone playing a former supermodel and cosmetics mogul obsessed with developing creams to halt the ageing process. Berry, a former Bond girl, portrays Patience Phillips, a plain-jane graphic designer who finds a miracle anti-aging facial cream but soon discovers disastrous side-effects.

'There is this plastic, copycat look evolving and that's frightening to me. ...It's really insane and I feel sad that's what society is doing to women.'

While the Oscar-winning Berry was vehemently against the alterations, Stone was more forgiving of plastic surgery. 'I don't fault it for someone who wants it. ...You have to do what makes you feel good, but it's not my thing.'

Stone, 46, admitted she was offered fewer parts in films after 40 but says it had not tempted her to consider going under the knife.

Although considered one of Hollywood’s most gorgeous women, Berry added that her appearance has not exempted her from life’s troubles.

'Beauty? Let me tell you something – being thought of as a beautiful woman has spared me nothing in life,' she said. 'No heartache, no trouble. Love has been difficult. Beauty is essentially meaningless and it is always transitory.'

Both Berry and Stone recently split with their husbands.

To her public, Berry offers advice: 'In life it's not important how you fall, but how you get up,' she said. 'I think both of us (Berry and Stone) have fallen in public and both gotten up in public. Neither of us have tried to pretend we're perfect.'