I just saw another bit of news on the IMDB about someone complaining about “female ageism” in movies and as always, I’m completely confused by the argument.
Actress Faye Dunaway has chastised Hollywood movie executives for refusing to cast older female stars as romantic leads. The 66-year-old Network star insists Tinseltown is exacting double standards between ageing actors and actresses - allowing older stars such as Jack Nicholson to romance much younger women. She says, “I am furious that they think I’m too old to play the love interest of guys like Jack Nicholson and Clint Eastwood. Why should I play sisters and mothers, while guys like Jack and Clint, who are older than me, have on-screen lovers half their age?”
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Using her examples, you have to go back 10 years (to As Good as It Gets) to find Jack Nicholson romancing a much younger woman. And you need 12 years (to The Bridges of Madison County) to find Clint Eastwood in a similar position. That doesn’t sound like a very strong case to me.
While Dunaway seems to be right in that no one is making romances with older actresses, an older actress can still get plenty of work (and awards). Just look at Helen Mirren, Kathy Bates (who coincidentally played Nicholson’s love interest a few years ago) and Jane Fonda (who hasn’t worked much, but her movies are considered a big deal).
Personally, for me, the whole argument boils down to “All the parts I used to get when I was in my 20s are going to people in their 20s! That sucks!”
I think the really good parts for older women (and men, to some extent) are few and far between, but that seems to be changing. Baby boomers have a lot of money to spend on entertainment and they really aren’t interested in most of the movies with the young starlets who pander to the younger crowd.
Hollywood hears that and is responding in a very positive way. I see the pendulum swinging in favor of the mature actors and actresses.
[QUOTE=Justin_Bailey]
Using her examples, you have to go back 10 years (to As Good as It Gets) to find Jack Nicholson romancing a much younger woman. And you need 12 years (to The Bridges of Madison County) to find Clint Eastwood in a similar position. That doesn’t sound like a very strong case to me.
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Well, you could look at any Woody Allen movie in the last 20 years. I could think of individual examples, but I don’t know what you would find convincing. This is not a novel criticism at all, however, and other actors and actresses have been leveling this charge for years.
You may be right, but the target audience for most movies isn’t baby boomers, it’s adolescents. There could be an upswing going on, though, that’d be nice.
[QUOTE=Justin_Bailey]
Using her examples, you have to go back 10 years (to As Good as It Gets) to find Jack Nicholson romancing a much younger woman.
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Huh? He had a much younder girlfriend in The Departed, released last year.
Well, she has a point. She was in the Thomas Crown Affair many years ago, and would have been a more suitable foil for Sean Connery in the (essentially the same) movie Entrapment rather than Catherine Zeta-Jones who was 39 years younger than him.
Diane Keaton is of a similar age to Faye Dunaway, and has had several roles like Dunaway describes in the last few years…including with Nicholson himself, in Something’s Gotta Give.
I wouldn’t say this isn’t a shameful phenomenon in general, but in the particular case of Dunaway, I think she’s not getting work because she’s infamously a bitch to work with.
[QUOTE=Fiver]
Diane Keaton is of a similar age to Faye Dunaway, and has had several roles like Dunaway describes in the last few years…including with Nicholson himself, in Something’s Gotta Give.
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But Keaton and Susan Sarandon are about the only older actresses that play romantic roles.
It is a shame that so many older actresses are given short shrift on juicy parts in the movies. It’s probably no coincidence that even young actors and actresses aren’t given many juicy parts, either. I mean, come on — for every “Girl, Interrupted” part there’s half a dozen “Topless Girl In Hot Tub That Is Told To Scram By the Lead Villain” parts.
When was the last time you saw a plethora of really good, meaty acting roles even for the young and beautiful set, male or female? Right now Hollywood is stuck on eye candy roles for both genders, typecasting actors as a known quantity. Zany and kooky? Get Leslie Nielsen. Wry and prickly? Get Ben Stiller.
Acting roles? Please. Nobody’s getting those these days.
Fah… Isn’t it funny how when they were the young hotties hired for their youthful looks they didn’t seem to mind the system. Suddenly their assets are gone and they cry foul. Good actreses still get roles no matter the age.
Women who were hired for their looks and had passable talent get shunted aside when they suddenly have to depend on their weaker talents.
Dame Judy Dench seems to be having no problem getting work in films.
What next, Burt Reynold’s complaining he’s not being considered for the action hero roles anymore?
[QUOTE=kingpengvin]
Fah… Isn’t it funny how when they were the young hotties hired for their youthful looks they didn’t seem to mind the system.
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Who says they didn’t? When you’re starting your career I’d say you’re in less of a position to do anything about it.
[QUOTE=Marley23]
Men his age get action movie roles.
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Dude, Burt Reynolds is 71 years old. Assuming you don’t mean “roles” in the strictest sense of the word (any role, not just leading roles), I guess I’m gonna have to ask for a cite.
[QUOTE=KneadToKnow]
Dude, Burt Reynolds is 71 years old. Assuming you don’t mean “roles” in the strictest sense of the word (any role, not just leading roles), I guess I’m gonna have to ask for a cite.
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Sean Connery starred in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen at the age of 72 or 73. Harrison Ford is going to film Indiana Jones 4 a little before he turns 65. I’ll grant that it’s probably not a long list after them, but then, there may be more- I’m not really into action movies.
B. Harrison Ford doesn’t have anything else to offer. Burt is a proven comedic and dramatic actor, say what you will about his chops, he can do the work. If it doesn’t involve gunplay or big boomy explosion, Ford can’t hack it.
Sean Connery comes much closer to proving the point. Did his role in that film (and I’m actually asking here, not taking a position, because I didn’t see this work of cinematic achievement) actually involve “action,” or was it an action film with Sean Connery in a position of stately gravitas a la Hunt for Red October?
I could think of individual examples, but I don’t know what you would find convincing. This is not a novel criticism at all, however, and other actors and actresses have been leveling this charge for years.