Unrealistic age of female actors

Once you start seeing it, it’s difficult to unsee it and then you start feeling really uncomfortable watching these obviously older men letching over these beautiful younger women. It’s grim

There are some actors like Richard Dreyfus who seemed to jump from playing teenagers to middle-aged men without passing through their twenties and thirties.

I was watching a new (to me) show the other day and one of the actresses happened to be someone I went to school with (early 40s) in the show an apb went out and she was described as 29 years old! I was

Quick google shows meryl streep was 59 in mamma Mia.

They're

DD likes to watch Mamma Mia (for the songs, she doesn't really get the paternity bit)

I watch the film and like the fact that it has an older woman as the lead role laughing, singing, having fun, thinking about sex etc. Great. Such a change from older women being portrayed as sexless old harridans.

But then there's a bit where Donna says that she "couldn't go home" because she got pregnant.

In the film her daughter is 20.

So how fucking old is she meant to be then cos a 30 something doesn't get kicked out by her parents for getting up the duff....

And then my brain goes because I suddenly realise she isn't supposed to be a 50 something year old woman at all. 50 something women are only allowed to play fun loving sexy roles when their pretending to be less than 40

One of the things I liked about Richard Todd is that as well as being a real life hero (he was one of the first to land in Normandy during Operation Overlord) he turned down the opportunity to play himself in The Longest Day on the grounds he was too old and chose to play Major John Howard instead.

Middleaged men certainly are not 'assets' maybeit's someone like Tom Cruise or Harrison Ford who has been playing the character since they were young. Most of the top grossing films of the last few years do not star men in their 50s and above.

Most desirable female stars are in their 20, while best selling men are middle aged. I find it laughable when 50-60yo dudes play very tough heroes. Like... really? But they're assets to the production

If anyone has ever read a forum like Reddit’s relationships board you’ll see how much these films influence men in real life

That's why I find it so distasteful. It normalises the idea that beautiful young women will be after men in their 40s or 50s, and that once they hit 40 or so, actresses - and by extension women in general - have no value.

A lot of women married older men during the post War years,

There certainly were not a lot of women marrying men a quarter of a century older, as was the case with Bogart and Bacall.

Baby was about to go to college in DD so would have been 17/18 not 15. Still an age gap though.

Lauren Bacall was only 17 when she met Humphrey Bogart. Sounds icky but their marriage appears to have been a happy one and I don’t think Bacall just had some weak-kneed crush on a much older man. A lot of women married older men during the post War years, not least because a lot of men their own age were dead.

That'd be Diane Kruger, who played his girlfriend in that film. Despite being almost a quarter of a century his junior. Yuck.

Yeah that’s the film. I couldn’t be bothered to look it up really. It was very forgettable and mediocre.

If anyone has ever read a forum like Reddit’s relationships board you’ll see how much these films influence men in real life. There’s always some bloke in their late 30s onwards who has a new female coworker who is showing a basic level of politeness to him. So obviously she wants to get all over his dick because young women can’t stop listing for dad bods.

I'd like to put in a good word for Alison Lohmann in White Oleander, who completely convincingly goes from a shy 12 year old to a level-headed 20something survivor via very angry mixed-up teen.

Brilliant film by Peter Kosminsky.

Yes it's always been the case. I remember Kristin Scott Thomas complaining that - after her fame with The English Patient - she was paired with crumbly , old movie stars a generation older than her.

She did a couple of those types of roles and then refused to any more, doing a lot of French films instead - and good on her.

To be fair with Mrs Wilson - the husband was meant to be older.

I found it really annoying in Mrs Wilson how very old the male lead was.
He was incapable of looking younger, none of the scenes that were supposed to be '20 years ago' were at all believable.

I loved the actor in other things (game of thrones) but this casting was just silliness & a shame.

I was completely confused about David Hasselhoff and the farm foods advert. I couldn’t understand why he was advertising this with his daughter or granddaughter and the was really concerned when she had her feet on his lap. The penny only dropped when they mentioned marriage. This young looking woman was actually his wife. Really incongruous adverts as she looks far younger than her 38 years and he looks far older than 66.

Nothing to do with the thread but just an interesting fact about delusional actors. In The Vikings Kirk Douglas's father was played by Ernest Borgnine who was younger than him.

I noticed this in a film recently where Liam Neeson was married to January Jones. He looked like her dad. And of course there was another hot blonde who was all over Neeson because he’s just that irresistable. It’s just completely normalised now.

That'd be Diane Kruger, who played his girlfriend in that film. Despite being almost a quarter of a century his junior. Yuck.

Didn’t Cher play Meryl Streep’s mum in a film? They must be the same age.

It’s very weird. Weird to see young women plainly children (recently saw this in a version of Little Women). And weird to see young women playing not so young women (although to be fair a lot of 25 year olds could easily pass for 35 and many 35 year olds could easily pass for 25). Age in young women can be quite ambiguous (for example I am 25 and have people assuming I am anywhere between 18 and 35).

I noticed this in a film recently where Liam Neeson was married to January Jones. He looked like her dad. And of course there was another hot blonde who was all over Neeson because he’s just that irresistable. It’s just completely normalised now.

Those viagra adverts on TV really annoy me too. The schlubby bearded guy dancing round in his pants with a wife who is way too hot for him! Male fantasy at its worst.

@OlennasWimple

Exactly. They just make the man older for no reason, even in films not aimed at men looking to ogle hot young women.

They even do it in kids' films. Was there any obvious plot-based reason why the dad in Paddington had to be 12 years older than the mum? I can't think of one.