43 year old too old to play the wife of a 57 year old actor

[Brogadaccio]

I just read that the actress ''went on a twitter rant'' because she was angry about this. It sounds less like a rant and more like a series of good points to me. I've never heard of her, she was on Orange is The New Black apparently but she is right.

I have on occasion avoided paying to go and see a film because I decided that the age gap between the leading actors was too wide. So women need to stop tolerating these age gaps in films. Women are paying to go and see films too. We're at least 50% of the paying audience. How is it that everything revolves around what older men men want even when it's still 10 dollars for an old, fat, thin, black, white, old, young, male or female person to go to the cinema.

If you think that a film has cast actors with a ludicrously improbable age gap then vote with your ass not on the seat.

Wild target is one of my favourite movies.

Emily blunt (about 27 at the time) and Bill Nighy (about 60) that age gap is beyond ridiculous.

i sort of understand when age gap is supposed to be a part of the story. otherwise doesn't make sense.

The one that sticks in my mind was when they were casting A Year In Provence and they cast John Thaw as Peter Mayle, but refused to cast Sheila Hancock as Annie Mayle, because no one would believe she was his wife.

She was his wife in real life for fuck's sake.

Xenophile whaaaaat?! I hadn't heard that! (And she's still absolutely beautiful now, and she must be in her seventies.)

I've never heard of the term May-December before and I find it really creepy. It basically proves that the appeal is having a woman who's "coming into bloom" when you're a nearly dead bloke, doesn't it?

Do they not realise how utterly absurd and creepy it makes them look. Jesus if I were an old male actor I'd insist on having a woman of an age that didn't make me look like a cradle robbing pervert.

It's interesting how it centres the male fantasy of snagging a nubile young hotty and totally disregards women's preference for either a more realistic gap or their own share of young male muffin to objectify. But, no, we are stuck with unfit men who the years have not been kind to and expected to be grateful. Pfff.

There was a comedy series called May to December I think, had Anton Rodgers in it.

It's a bit like the phenomena of gross old bar flies with beer stains on their fat bellies bitching day in and day out about their wives- and if you know these guys wives they're always very quiet, make more effort than almost anyone you could meet, never give up on regaining their husbands affection, while he sits and bemoans his poor luck in having married a woman instead of a mannequin and occasionally winds himself up to try to flirt with the bar maid. Because every 20 something should be flattered by the attentions of a smelly rude bastard who calls his thin, attentive wife a fat cow.

If men were expected to desperately try to 'make up for' aging or expect to get replaced too- then that would be no good either. What we need is recognition - FULL recognition that is as human beings with everything that entails. Like one's ornamental value not factoring into one's value as a person.

Admittedly Sheila Hancock dodged a bullet with a year in provence but yes it's draining and infuriating to be asked to suspend disbelief in this over and over again. I suppose that the film producers simply have no idea how strange it looks as it is all they see.

I suppose there'salso the argument that the older actresses are so worked on and botoxed that they can barely express emotion with their faces any more. But who knows? They rarely get the chance to prove otherwise.

I think some directors must barely recognise what mature female emotion looks like anyway.

Jennifer Lawrence played the lead in Joy: much too young for the role and there are plenty of excellent older actors.

It's TV too: Keely Hawes is much too young to play the mother in The Durrells.

Emma Thompson as Robert Redford's wife in a Walk in the Woods. Mind you Bill Bryson was 44 when he attempted to walk the Appalachian Trail. Redford most definitely wasn't 44. So Emma Thompson would have been a much closer match to his actual wife's age than Redford was to his.

Xenophile I'm now disappointed that John Thaw didn't say 'cast us both or neither of us'.

They bought a lovely place in Provence where John Thaw apparently spent some of his happiest months after his diagnosis. As I remember it, he did kick up quite a stink at the time.

Sheila Hancock is beautiful and makes any role she takes look effortless, I love her.

I just looked up Sheila Hancock and saw that John Thaw was in fact almost 9 years younger than her. Maybe that would make her look too old to be his wife, to the untrained eye?

Also, she is a Quaker. They're the most solidly non-sexist religion around (because God resides equally in everyone). And she's friends with Sandi Toksvig.

It's so true oneflewovertheDodosnest these films are aimed at women! They're doing this for their own egos. And it is sad that fat men with no hair and gravy on their jumpers then think in real life that they can ask out women 15 or even 20 years younger!

DH is 23 years older than me Hes 67 im nearly 44. But im the only younger woman hes ever been out with (we got together 25 years ago) he didnt make a habit of it. I tend to prefer older men.

I luffs Sheila Hancock.

"It basically proves that the appeal is having a woman who's "coming into bloom" when you're a nearly dead bloke, doesn't it?" That made me laugh and grimace at the same time. So true. It also makes me think less of the actors involved. Like Colin Firth could have said something, he's won an Oscar, he's a well-known name - he has the power, surely he has the ability to say hang on a sec without worrying about his career and reputation?

Same here! it's a great line!

Exactly, you'd expect a man in his 50s with self-awareness and a healthy self-esteem to realise, ok, because I'm famous 27 year olds in bars try to talk to me but this wouldn't happen if I weren't famous so if you cast me with a 27 year old I'm going to feel like a lecherous old creep.

The fact that he said nothing does make you think............