Unrealistic age of female actors

Perhaps the problem in your example (and like Outlander and Poldark) is that the story spans decades and they want to use the same actors but don't bother to age them convincingly. In Outlander, for example, the actors are actually in their late 30's so 'just' old enough to have a 20yr old daughter.

Apart from that I agree. My DH was watching a film with Sean Penn in a while ago and his love interest was about a third of his age, so much so that at first I thought she was playing his daughter. It made me feel a little bit sick, if I'm honest.

@FreiasBathtub

Also, 10 years age difference between Vanessa Kirby and Matthew Goode, even though Princess Margaret and Armstrong Jones were the same age.

Mind you, Matthew Goode is beautiful so I'll not complain overmuch!

Maybe they're just sticking to a winning formula. If it didn't fare well commercially they likely wouldn't do it.

What evidence is there that having unrealistic age gaps between actors is a 'winning formula'? Do cinema goers really think "I will only go to that film provided the man is at least 15 years older than the woman"?

Women certainly don't. In fact, I know of quite a few women who - like myself - will refuse to go to a film when there is a gratuitous age gap.

Also, I think you're wrong to assume that everything done in Hollywood is done for logical commerical reasons. Producers, casting agents etc - most of whom are men - have their own prejudices and agendas, which will be reflected in their films.

I really noticed this in The Crown, I think only 13 years between Victoria Hamilton (Queen Mum) and Clare Foy. Not even as though they needed them to age right, as they were recasting after 2 seasons anyway.

I want to be fair to the Last Kingdom. It spans a long period. Alfred actor can't be that old either. Uhtred isn't he on family number 3 now? Should be getting on a bit. It's only going to get worse unless they take a decade long break in filming!

What about eye candy for the female viewers, who would be in the majority for many of the films mentioned?

Maybe they're just sticking to a winning formula. If it didn't fare well commercially they likely wouldn't do it.

I do agree it's one sided though. Not contesting that, just looking at why it is. Very likely influenced by the dominance of men in the industry as pointed out.

Ultimately, it's probably just a manner of marketing if you will. Eye candy for the male viewers

What about eye candy for the female viewers, who would be in the majority for many of the films mentioned?

Hollywood is a cess pit of men from what I can make out lately, Producers, Directors, actors. It makes you want to take a shower when you read some things.

Ultimately, it's probably just a manner of marketing if you will. Eye candy for the male viewers.

But we're not talking about the actors in real life. We're talking about their characters, most of whom are not 'extremely wealthy' and therefore, as you say, would be highly unlikely to have much younger wives.

Oh, I know. I was just speculating that for the Hollywood lot, with loads of hangers on and young hopefuls fawning around them, it probably seems less odd - still a bit hmm though.

I think so Iced. Probably wouldn’t have been made otherwise.

Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool. Annette Bening (60s) has a relationship with a younger man - Jamie Bell (I think late 20s/early 30s).

Isn't that film based on a true story though?

A lot of women also seem to find older men attractive (e.g. Sean Connery being voted sexiest msn alive in his 60s)

The idea that women generally find older men hot is mostly male fantasy - a fantasy reinforced by these films. And who 'voted' for Connery as 'sexiest man alive'? If you want to go by such lists, however, you'll find that the most fancied men are usually quite young and hunky - the likes of Chris Hemsworth, Jason Momoa, Aidan Turner etc.

Please don't try to pretend that older men are playing opposite younger women because that's how women prefer it. Because that's nonsense.

Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool. Annette Bening (60s) has a relationship with a younger man - Jamie Bell (I think late 20s/early 30s).

In one scene there’s Jamie Bell, Annette Bening, Frances Barber and Vanessa Redgrave onscreen. 3 women over 50 in one film, all allowed together in one scene? I nearly fell off my chair.

I haven’t got to the end yet so no spoilers!

I suppose part of it could be that older, extremely wealthy men often have younger wives, something less seen in the general population where the man in question didn't have the lure of a burgeoning bank account

But we're not talking about the actors in real life. We're talking about their characters, most of whom are not 'extremely wealthy' and therefore, as you say, would be highly unlikely to have much younger wives.

A lot of women also seem to find older men attractive (e.g. Sean Connery being voted sexiest msn alive in his 60s) but the reverse doesn't seem to be true. I wonder if part of it is the 'authority' thing.

I suppose part of it could be that older, extremely wealthy men often have younger wives, something less seen in the general population where the man in question didn't have the lure of a burgeoning bank account.

Although, I do think it's also the fact that women are more sexualised so necessarily need to be younger to fit this requirement.

The reason this happens so much is because the (vast) majority of producers, directors, casting agents etc are men, who, as I've heard it said, 'cast men who they want to be, and women who they want to fuck'.

If more power players in Hollywood were women, it would be very different.

I remember watching the film Entrapment from years ago with Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta Jones as his love interest and feeling really uncomfortable at the age gap (he was 69 and she was 30 at the time). It’s not a new thing but is really fucking frustrating that it’s still going on. Men can still be leading men well into their dotage apparently but women are relegated to supporting roles like mums or put upon wives unless they’re the lucky few like Meryl Streep who have earned the right to be in leading roles and have a few wrinkles. You don’t need to be anywhere near her calibre of acting as a man though.

IIRC, Sean Connery was 12 years older than Harrison Ford when he played Indiana Jones’s father.

I know, look at Harrison Ford.

76 and still getting the all action hero roles (new versions of Star Wars and Blade Runner very recently, and currently working on Indiana Jones Part 5).

There is a 22 year age gap between him and his wife, Calista Flockhart. She is 54, just in case anybody thought he was living in domestic bliss with a 98 year old.

But of course nobody thought that.

Another example: anyone remember the film Unfaithful?

The character played by the utterly gorgeous Diane Lane was clearly supposed to be quite a bit older than her boyfriend, played by Olivier Martinez. Yet the actors are the same age. There was an age gap in that film, but it was between Lane and her husband, played by Richard Gere, who is 15 years her senior. Yet that was not considered worthy of remark.

...And don't get me started on 'Teen' movies. It all started with Stockard Channing in Grease playing twice her age.

it is ridiculous. If a woman is above 20 she gets mother roles. If above 30, shes the grandmother

Men are the only ones allowed to get old

The Greatest Showman - Hugh Jackman’s character grew up as the same age as his wife and yet he is in his 50s and she is in her 30s! Figure that one out!

Yup.

Or Jennifer Lawrence playing Bradley Cooper's girlfriend in "Silver Linings Playbook." She was barely out of her teens and he was nearly 40, yet in the book they went to school together and she was supposed to be a world-weary widow!

Not that this is a new thing. See any film starring Humphrey Bogart and compare his age to his leading ladies. Or even worse, in the classic 'older woman' film The Graduate, Dustin Hoffman was only a few years younger than the beautiful Anne Bancroft.