Why is Ageism and Sexism Still Ok in Hollywood?

This was originally published in the OnStage Blog newsletter on 8/5/2022

by Greg Ehrhardt, OnStage Blog Editorial Staff

At OnStage Blog, we highlight examples of discrimination and prejudice in theatre when it comes to gender, sexuality, and ethnicity. In case you didn’t know, we also talk about Hollywood at OnScreen Blog, and while those issues exist in Hollywood, the industry is slowly becoming more inclusive in those areas (especially with Disney properties).

One aspect of discrimination that Hollywood still happily engages in is age discrimination, and there doesn’t appear to be any signs of this getting any better.

When we say age discrimination, we could be talking about the direct issue of women being shut out of roles strictly due to age, but usually we refer to the typical gap we see in the ages of the male and female love interest in any given movie. It is frankly not unusual to see an age gap of 10 or more years in a Hollywood romance, even though age gaps of 10+ years represents less than 10% of real-life relationships.

Many times, for the casual and die hard movie enthusiast, this is greeted with a shrug. Who cares, as long as the movie is entertaining?

We all should care, because Hollywood is sending a message that women are only desirable companions if they are under 40 (and usually under 30).

Believe me, I’ve looked: its not easy to find a non-sequel movie with a decent budget not starring Meryl Streep or Sandra Bullock (only the two of the biggest female movie stars we have) with a female lead love interest younger than 40 (and when you do, the male love interest is often in his 50s or 60s, like Larry Crowne and Firewall).

This means (among other things) that it is difficult for a woman to become a mega star; once they hit 40, they get handed roles where they play the mother or grandmother of the lead character instead of a feature role. Actors like Denzel Washington, Tom Hanks, and Liam Neeson get leading roles (and younger love interests) well into their 60s.

This is why we use the OnScreen Blog twitter account (follow us today!) to highlight these absurd age gaps in movies, because movies made today, in the year 2022, still put 20 something year old actresses with actors in their 40s. The Northman is a perfect example: Anya Taylor-Joy is a wonderful actress, but there’s a 20 year gap between her and Skarsgard!! You’re telling me there was no equally qualified actress in her 40s who would have been exceptional in the role?

The Northman is one of my favorite recent examples, because there was NOTHING in the script which indicated she had to be in her 20s (and Anya Taylor-Joy very much looks like she’s in her 20s). Even if they wanted the character to be younger looking, you have the greatest makeup artists in the world at your disposal. You can make a 40 year old woman look 25 if you want to!

Alexander Skarsgard, Anya Taylor-Joy, The Northman

But the thing is, they don’t want to, otherwise they would do it. With actresses, they always want the youngest next best thing (see Zendaya’s skyrocketing fame, taking nothing away from her talent, and also why she was paired with a man 10 years her senior in The Greatest Showman).

Zac Efron, Zendaya, The Greatest Showman

The fact is, I bring this up not due to anything I hold against Taylor-Joy or Zendaya. I bring this up because I want them both to be movie stars for 30 years, not to be playing someone’s mother at 40 years and turned into an afterthought at 45.

Men get plenty of chances at decades long stardom, and frankly, so should women.