Donna Mills, 85, mocks critics who complain she uses 'too much makeup' with shocking transformation video

Donna Mills showed a side of herself rarely glimpsed by fans when she took critics of her looks to task on Sunday.

The Knots Landing star, 85, revealed just how much effort she puts into her appearance in an Instagram transformation video.

The clip was a response to a user who wrote on an earlier post, 'You wear too much makeup for your age ♡.'

In her video, Mills started out as her usual, stunningly youthful-looking self, before she snapped her fingers and revealed her makeup-free visage and graying hair.

It was a night-and-day change, with the actress instantly looking years — if not decades — older in her natural state.

'Oh, this comment,' Mills said as she pointed up at the comment on screen.

She was dressed like Olivia Newton-John at the end of Grease, with a black leather biker jacket, a black blouse with a lacy neckline and blue jeans.

Mills also sported what appeared to be a wavy blond shoulder-length wig, and she wore her standard makeup look, which gave her eyes a particularly striking quality.

She let out a playful laugh and added, 'I guess I didn't get the memo,' before snapping her fingers and instantly transforming into her makeup-free self. 

Instead of thick blond hair, she now had a mass of dark hair with snow-white strands in front that were swept back. 

Mills's previously smooth visage now betrayed lines on her forehead and wrinkles on her upper lip, though they were still impressively shallow for her age. 

She seemed to have fun playing up her aged appearance by wearing slim gold metallic-frame glasses that dropped down her nose, and she swapped out the youthful leather jacket for a frilly white blouse and a string of pearls that also made her look older. 

'Did you want me to look like this?' Mills asked with a chuckle.

'Sorry,' she added, before whispering, 'Not sorry.' 

Mills reverted to her original punk-chic style and fully made-up face to conclude the video.

'I like the way I look,' she defended herself.

'This is my style,' Mills continued. 'And style doesn't have an expiration date, does it?' 

In her caption, she wrote, 'I said what I said 🤍 #style #aging #makeup #clapback #armchairwarrior.' 

Her fans were overwhelmingly supportive in the comments, with several complimenting her style, while others slammed the original comment that set her off for being rude.

'You are stunning and your makeup is beautiful!' gushed one fan. 'Love your response and the graciousness along with it! Thats why you exude being a Lady [sic]!' 

Another user agreed, writing, 'You look beautiful! Never change ❤️.'

'You tell 'em! You look absolutely stunning & you are 100% correct...no expiration date! You rock! 🩷💜🩷,' wrote one fan.

One person simply commented, 'Mic drop! 🤍,' while another wrote that Mills was 'Eternally Sensational' while wishing her a 'Happy Easter.' 

Another fan suggested that the original comment was likely the work of an 'unhappy' person.

'You look amazing unhappy people say unhappy things keep shining @thedonnamills 💕💜💙 I always tell people you're even More beautiful in person and up close 🩵💕💄💯💚💜🩷💖❤️💝,' they wrote in the comments section.

Mills has been a regular on TV going back to her 1966 debut on the CBS soap opera The Secret Storm, and she made her feature theatrical debut the following year in the neo-noir thriller The Incident. 

Although she continued to appear in films throughout her career, she's best known for her role as the main antagonist, Abby Cunningham, on the Dallas spin-off Knots Landing, on which she starred from 1980 to 1989, though she returned years later for the 1993 season finale and a subsequent reunion miniseries.

The show's popularity helped make her instantly identifiable makeup look a hit with fans, and she revealed in August at the Southfork Experience: Knots Landing Panel that she was once given the opportunity to film a tutorial for Universal Pictures, long before makeup tutorials were a thing.

'People kept writing to me. At that time, you couldn't text or do any of that stuff,' Mills said, via People. 'But they were writing to me and saying, "Tell me how you do your eye makeup. I need to know how you do your eye makeup and everything."

'I said, "Why don't I just do a video about it and show them?" And so I did,' she continued. 'I got a whole production crew. I shot at my house. All on my own dime. And then I thought, I can't distribute it. I don't have the wherewithal to do that, so I took it to Universal, and they bought it, and they distributed it and it went platinum.'