Gabrielle Union is giving herself "grace" ahead of her 53rd birthday

She told PEOPLE: "I'm proud of myself and I'm finally giving my younger self grace for not being perfect and still being open to learning.

"And my grandmother lived to be 110 years old, so I got a good 60-plus years to continue to make myself proud."

Gabrielle will be filming a movie in Italy around the time of her birthday, so she is hoping her husband, retired NBA star Dwayne Wade, 43, plans a romantic outing for them both.

She said: "Hopefully my husband takes me out on the town. It will be iconic [to celebrate with] a couple of cocktails in such a romantic, beautiful and fun city".

Meanwhile, Gabrielle previously revealed she has struggled to balance her career in Hollywood with her responsibilities as a mother.

The movie star - who has Kaavia, six, with Dwyane, and is also the stepmother to Zaire, 23, Dahveon, 21, Zaya, 17, and Xavier, 11 - told Marie Claire magazine's Motherhood Issue: "I felt much more conflicted about my lack of balance with Zaire and Dahveon because their needs were just different and they needed me to be physically present.

"But there's no balance. I can't work in Atlanta 12 to 16 hours a day and think that I can have balance when I'm flying in on the weekends. Now I rely heavily on our village and there is zero shame in that."

Gabrielle acknowledged that she needs help from a team of people to raise her children.

The actress - who has been married to Dwayne since 2014 - said: "Not only do we have their long-term nanny, we've had mannies, we have family members, we have aunties, we have tutors, teachers, therapists. It's all hands on deck.

"A lot of us have deep shame about that. But there is no balance. I had to give myself a ton of grace and be like, I can't do it. I'm not even going to attempt having some kind of balance when none exists."