Unrealistic age of female actors

[MoltenLasagne]

I know this is a petty issue, but lately I've been noticing and becoming increasingly annoyed at the unrealistic age of female actors in films and tv shows.

It's not so much the creepiness of having extremely young love interests for much older men (although obviously that gets repetitive and gross) but there have been a number of times lately where the woman playing the mother is so young compared to her adult children that it makes me question the plot.

The most recent example was in The Last Kingdom, where Eliza Butterworth (25) plays the mother of Aethelfled played by Millie Brady (25). I honestly spent time trying to figure out whether I'd missed some kind of step-mother related plot point.

Is it getting worse, or is it just me? And why on earth do casting / directors do this?! (I think I know the answer to that...)

I don't get the point about Clint Eastwood. He made his breakthrough "A Fistful of Dollars" when he was only 32, with other films such as "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" and "For a few Dollars More" shortly after. Hardly ancient.

I think the take home poo is that money will get you the partner you want, which in moist cases is somebody younger.

Personally, I prefer not to take home poo.

Maybe John Wayne is a better example then - I was thinking of Dirty Harry in which CE wasn't really young.

Cowboys often tended to be 40+ which can't have been too realistic surely.

Talking of Jennifer Lawrence, she also did Joy - about the woman who invented a new mop and made millions (or something, haven’t seen it!). Joy Mangano was late 30s when she started out and is now 60 odd. Yet they went with JL. I remember a reviewer pointing out this discrepancy.

Cowboys often tended to be 40+ which can't have been too realistic surely.

So long as it's men who are older than the characters they portray, that's not a problem in Hollywood.

How old were the female actors in these films? If there were any?

The ones that truly gross me out are the alleged golden age Hollywood sex comedies and thrillers in which Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart or some other presidential looking type falls unpleasantly for a woman barely out of school.

He then tells her off, patronises the shit out of her, and calls her a 'silly little fool'. Meanwhile she cries when she displeases him.

My dad said oh you must watch Roman Holiday, it's an absolute classic. I watched it and was almost sick.

I find some of the Bond films hilarious. Think it was Roger Moore who did one as a borderline chubber. He was beating all these ninjas up with shoddy waist high kicks and unconvincing punches and getting girls young enough to be his daughter. 😂

@MorrisZapp

Oh I agree! I love the style of 'Old Hollywood' but just can't watch the films because of outrageous age gaps. Even though the women were made up to look more mature than they were, it's still cringey.

Another thing that had me thinking was Dirty Dancing. I was a teen when it came out and I liked it, but when I look back... a grown man romancing a teenaged girl on holiday with her parents? Yuck!

Let's look at the box set. Breaking Bad was absolutely brilliant but featured a man whose whole persona was meant to be geeky, beige physics teacher. Who apparently hadn't noticed he was married to a ten out of ten hottie.

I'm not sure if there was an age difference but there was a huge fuckability difference. And that's multi award winning, almost universally loved, highest quality drama.

Ok I've googled it. Walt is 12 years older than Skyler. And they were meant to have met in college. Who are all these men in their thirties meeting college students?

@MorrisZapp

I guess in the same place where nearly 40 year old Bradley Cooper got to date 22 year old JLaw, even though they supposedly went to school together. Or where the characters played by Hugh Jackman and Michelle Williams also went to school together in "The Greatest Showman" but when they reached adulthood, he had somehow become 12 years older than her.

Hollywood is a wonderful, magical place, where the normal rules of time and ageing don't apply.

The one that really annoyed me (because it was so unnecessary, what with it being a comfortable Sunday tea time show, not Hollywood glitz) was "A Year in Provence", starring the lovely John Thaw as Peter Mayle (playing younger than his years) and the equally lovely Lindsay Duncan as Annie Mayle (8 years younger than Thaw, and playing far older than her years)

John Thaw was embarrassed by that casting, and said it was why the series panned. His wife Sheila Hancock (older than him!) wrote about it in her memoir.

Another thing that had me thinking wasDirty Dancing. I was a teen when it came out and I liked it, but when I look back... a grown man romancing a teenaged girl on holiday with her parents? Yuck!

I always thought this! Isn't Baby technically a minor in it?

Yeah, Baby is 15 in DD.... Not sure I would be as cool as her mother is by the end of the film with my DD gyrating with a (very obviously) grown man even someone as beautiful as Patrick Swayze

@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.

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.

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).

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

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.

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 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.

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.

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.