News Reporter: Act Four: Hollywood's brutal age math for actresses

Wednesday, 11 May 2016

Act Four: Hollywood's brutal age math for actresses

Alyssa Rosenberg on culture and politics

Julie (Mammie Gummer), Ricki (Meryl Streep) and Pete (Kevin Kline) in “Ricki and the Flash.” (SONY PICTURES ENTERTAINMENT)

Every Wednesday, I answer a question from Monday’s chat in this newsletter. You can read the transcript of the chat here, and if you want to submit a question for next week’s chat, you can do that here. And as a bonus, if you want to watch me and Style editor David Malitz talk about last Sunday’s episode of “Game of Thrones,” you can catch us here — we’ll be doing these chats (almost) every Monday through the end of the season.

This week, a reader wants to talk about “actresses playing younger than their real ages”:

Or rather, a story completely glossing over the fact that the age of the role is clearly defined and the woman playing the part is WAY older than that. Twenties playing teens don’t count. I can only think of one, but my knowledge of this is admittedly small. Meryl Streep played Donna, the mom, in “Mama Mia.” But her daughter is supposed to be 20 and she got pregnant very young. So the actress should be early to possibly mid-40s. Ms. Streep was past 55 in this film. I’m almost inclined to think that this is indicative that Hollywood is so horrible for actresses over 40, that there weren’t any big enough names in that age range to help carry the movie. Or the ones in that age range didn’t dare play the mother of an adult for fear that they would never work again. Either is terrible to contemplate. Any thoughts?

So, first, I think it’s pretty obvious that there are slim pickings for women over a certain age in Hollywood. There are a few actresses, including Meryl Streep and Helen Mirren, who continue to score interesting, vibrant parts, largely because their brands are so established that their images transcend their ages. One of the reasons television has felt so refreshing of late is that there are suddenly a ton of great roles for older women there, now, from Sister Jane Ingalls (Beth Fowler) on “Orange Is The New Black,” to Olenna Tyrell (Diana Rigg) on “Game of Thrones,” to Jackie Florrick (Mary Beth Peil) on “The Good Wife.”

As for actors playing characters who are significantly older or younger, this is hardly the only example! One interesting choice in the most recent Marvel movie, “Captain America: Civil War,” was the decision to age down Peter Parker’s (Tom Holland) Aunt May (Marisa Tomei). In one sense, having a younger Aunt May affirms that a 51-year-old woman can still be attractive enough to stun even Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.). But to another extent, hot is all this particular 51-year-old woman can be. Tony and Peter take flight together. But Aunt May’s just a subordinate in her nephew’s story, even if a billionaire rolls by occasionally to hit on her.