Jennifer Ehle+Colin Firth - how the film industry has treated them...

[Tensmumym]

Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth were famously in Pride and Prejudice as partners. I've just discovered that the 45 year old Jennifer played the mother of the 25 year old Dakota Johnson in the film Fifty Shades of Grey. here Meanwhile, the 54 year old Colin played as the love interest opposite the 26 year old Emma Stone. here

OMFG

Just, I wouldn't blame them personally because it's their careers. But this is just so out of step with the direction we are heading in society in terms of equality. In real life a 62yo married to a 38yo - people would notice. Some might judge, many wouldn't, but it's not usual is it, it's not common, people would notice. How how how do they think it is normal to present this as normal, all the time? It's just reinforcing so horribly the power dynamics that we are trying to break down.

Interestingly I think US TV is much better - I watch a lot of glossy whodunnit stuff and no they aren't very on message generally from a feminist perspective and yes the women are generally all very good looking while the men don't have to be but BUT at least there are some older women and they are presented as PEOPLE IYSWIM. I imagine Anna Friel is a person in this I mean she's a good actress but a lot of the time female characters are there more or less for decoration aren't they and to add status to the male lead. LOOK how important this man is he's got a fit young bird! Actually that's another point isn't it, the "possession" of a much younger good looking woman is a sign of prestige isn't it, same as a fancy car or an expensive watch.

Getting annoyed now

Whirlpool - all I can say is yes, yes, yes. Haven't seen anything yet expressing incredulity about the age gap - which is the first step. Maybe we should set up a blog monitoring this?????

Sorry to add to the misery but just discovered that Marisa Tomei - very young looking 51 year old - is to play Spider Man's elderly Aunt May.

Even in "Something's Gotta Give", the whole premise of which is that 65(ish) Jack Nicholson gives up dating under 30s for Diane Keaton, Keaton is 9 years younger than JN,

And the younger man Keaton dates along the way is 15 years younger than her. Not 30+!

It's a good movie though as at least it makes a plot point of the initial generational difference for JN.

And let's not forget Alexander, where Colin Farrell was cast as Angelina Jolie's son, despite being just one year younger than her.

(IRL, Firth's wife is nine years younger than him)

It's icky and it puts me off those films.

In Up In The Air, I was holding my breath for Clooney to get together with the actress 25 years his junior. Luckily he went for the one only 13 years his junior. So... Yay?

Didn't Maggiee Gyllenhal recently go on Twitter to complain about this - they wouldn't cast her as love interwst with a 40yo because she is too old (37-ish)? Or something. Honestly, memory like a goldfish

Hollywood pisses me off constantly, I barely watch films now. Even Gru was older than Lucy in Dispicable Me

Yay, small triumphs Yonic Of course, the famous Jolie/Farrell mother/son combo. He is 39 and recently played opposite a 25 year old in Winter's Tale. Another minor triumph - Kathleen Turner played opposite Nicolas Cage in Peggy Sue Got Married. She's 10 years older than him. In another thread I started on Chat someone pointed out that Amy Adams as Lois Lane is 8/9 years older than Henry Cavill's Superman. There's also the bizarre ability of strange looking men like Simon Pegg to have a girlfriend as gorgeous as Rosamund Pike and nobody bats an eyelid. He played opposite another beautiful woman in Man Up and we're expected to accept it as normal. "He adds that Lake Bell's character, Nancy, is a refreshing change from the usual "unattainable manic-pixie" rom-com characters which he says are "some male fantasy of what a woman is or should be". Just portrayed by someone who happens to look like a model. www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/05/29/simon-pegg-there-arent-enough-female-voices-film_n_7468398.html

Yes elQuinto Maggie was deemed to old at 37 to be the love interest of a 55 year old.

Of course, Allen has never been afraid to pitch his male characters with much younger female accomplices – right back to 1979's Manhattan..

Mia Farrow was 11 when she met Sinatra, 21 when she married him. Who knows what happened when between those times. A 30 year age gap. Then there was Andre Previn and a 15 year age gap. Then Allen and I think that was 'only' a 10 year gap. I hate 95% of Hollywood but perhaps it does not so much project a distorted reality to the public so much as it projects the reality it lives itself.

"Of course, Allen has never been afraid to pitch his male characters with much younger female accomplices"

The use of the word "afraid" there, really pisses me off. It implies that Allen is some kind of courageous hero, doing something incredibly off the wall and artistically avant-garde and challenging. See how he's not afraid to reinforce patriarchal power norms! What a genius! How brave of him!

For effing FS

DadWasHere I didn't know that

If you took the names out it would look like a child being groomed by a much older man and the following relationships possibly as a result of her expectations and norms being fucked with when she was a child.

How revolting.

I don't think Winslet or Thompson have ever appeared in a Woody Allen film have they? Winslet has done a film with Polanski.

Kate Winslet was due to appear in Match Point but pulled out as she wanted to spend more time with her family. Not sure about Emma Thompson. Of course Cate Blanchett has been directed by Woody Allen.

"If you took the names out it would look like a child being groomed by a much older man and the following relationships possibly as a result of her expectations and norms being fucked with when she was a child."

Same with Woody and Soon-Yi

Stars do have some influence. There is nothing to stop them saying actually this actress is 20 years younger than me one of the same age would be more appropriate seeing as there is no plot requirement for such a noteworthy age gap.

Maybe we should have a toys are toys type campaign.

Great idea.

Now let's think of a hashtag.

Yes true.

I'm taking the names out because of legal stuff I guess but I can't imagine any of the people here are regs on MN

Small screen but it's stuck with me.

When they were casting for 'A Year In Provence' John Thaw had already been cast as Peter Mayle, but when Sheila Hancock went for the role of his wife, she was told she looked to old to be married to him. She was his wife in real life.....

I knew about the age gap between Farrow and Sinatra but not that he first met her when she was 11. This is an interesting if stomach churning article about their relationship. Apparently Jackie Mason made a gag about the age gap so Sinatra sent a thug to beat him up.

Emma Stone, Jennifer Lawrence, and Scarlett Johanssen have an "older man problem"

Or the people writing and casting films do, anyway.

I have always had a small spot in my heart for Jackie Mason since hearing that story, Tensmumyn. The fact that he clearly didn't like Sinatra at all, shows that his instincts were good.