Photo credit: Zadi Diaz/Flickr
A discussion about ageism in Hollywood casting choices.
Hollywood’s casting choices have come back into the limelight thanks to ‘The Dig’. The 2021 movie based on a true story cast Carey Mulligan, 35, as Edith Pretty, an actual woman who was 56 when the events depicted in the movie happened. Though there were reasons for this move, it’s curious that a 50-something actor couldn’t be found.
There have been memorable occasions when actors have been cast to play roles much younger than they are. Like when Emma Thompson, 35, played the 19-year-old Elinor Dashwood in ‘Sense and Sensibility’, for which she won an Oscar. Or when a 29-year-old Stacy Dash became teenager Dion in the coming-of-age classic ‘Clueless’.
But, in many cases, especially with female roles, casting directors choose younger actors to play more mature characters. For example, having 20-year-old Beyonce play Foxxy Cleopatra, who’s almost a decade older.
These casting choices have raised questions in and around Hollywood about the value of older actors. If a character is 55, why have a 30-year-old in a wig play the role? Is an actual man or woman aged 55 not attractive enough to be the 55-year-old love interest? Even when a man like 48-year-old Javier Bardem is cast, his love interest is a 27-year-old Jennifer Lawrence.
Photo credit: Jennifer Lawrence Films/Flickr. Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem in the movie 'Mother!'.
There isn’t necessarily anything wrong with age-gapped love interests; some successful real life romances are between people with an age gap, like Viola Davis and Julius Tennon, or Hugh Jackman and Deborra Lee-Furness. But when a character is a certain age, perhaps the actor should be too.
Having characters played by similarly aged actors will open the job market to people, particularly women, over 45 for roles other than of mother or maid. Perhaps seeing actual 50-year-old people living exciting lives on screen will also inspire us, the audiences, in real life too.
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