Posted on 01/18/2004 5:53:14 PM PST by Sub-Driver
Female, forty and furious January 19, 2004 - 11:24AM
On the attack ... Sharon Stone, Holly Hunter and Meg Ryan.
Hollywood's most formidable female stars have united to condemn "sexist" film moguls for failing to find roles for women over 40.
Meg Ryan, Holly Hunter, Charlotte Rampling, Sharon Stone and Whoopi Goldberg are among a group of 30 actresses who have taken part in a documentary by Rosanna Arquette to be screened in Britain this summer.
The documentary is seen as a thinly veiled attack on moguls such as Harvey Weinstein - the portly co-owner of Miramax - who control the film industry and the careers of Hollywood actresses.
Arquette, 44, who rose to fame when she starred opposite Madonna in the 1985 film Desperately Seeking Susan, said that her interest in what happened to 40-year-old women in Hollywood was sparked by the experience of
Debra Winger, the star of Terms of Endearment, who announced that she was quitting in 1996 aged 40. "Ageing," Arquette said this week, "equals career death."
In the documentary, called Searching For Debra Winger, Winger, who has been nominated for three Oscars, tells how she decided to quit and reveals that while she was working on An Officer And a Gentlemen the notorious producer Don Simpson told her that she needed diet pills.
Julianna Margulies, 37, who starred in ER opposite George Clooney, speaks frankly about the rigours of the casting couch. "You ask anyone that has been in those [audition] meetings. They say, 'Yeah that actress is great but would you f*** her?' And they ask all the men in the room."
The documentary will provoke heated debate in Hollywood, which has long been accused of discriminating against women for their age and beauty. Arquette told London's Sunday Telegraph that she had already received criticism from film bosses. "There are a lot of misogynistic men who are very angry about it," she said. "They've told me, 'It's just a bunch of chicks sitting around bitching about us'."
In the film, Daryl Hannah, 43, says that the root of the problem lies "with the guys who run the studios. They choose projects that they identify with and they say, 'I'd like to be that man having an affair with a chick of 18'."
Samantha Mathis, 33, agrees. "It's the revenge of the nerds syndrome, all these guys couldn't get a girlfriend in high school. They are smart but they have no social skills; suddenly they are running studios in a position of power."
Arquette's subjects are candid and often angry about the way the industry has spat them out once they have aged. Martha Plimpton, 33, says: "For women it's either, she's a starlet or she's an old hag." Whoopi Goldberg adds that film producers "want you to think that you're done" once actresses had turned 40.
Arquette, who is currently filming another documentary about musicians, continues to act and has recently been filming two comedies with the British actresses Imogen Stubbs and Jennifer Saunders.
She says that certain elements of Hollywood have always annoyed her. "I find it offensive that in Hollywood a 68-year-old movie star is paired with a 30-year-old, or someone even younger. You think, 'Come on, who are you kidding'. It is offensive."
Other interviewees said that they had financial problems when the parts dried up. Theresa Russell, 46, says: "It was really hard, I didn't get an audition for years and I started running out of money. I thought, what else can I do? I resent being in this situation. They want to put you out to pasture."
In any other profession, she says, "your work would get better the older you got". Holly Hunter, 45, who won an Oscar for The Piano, believes actresses are at their peak at 40. "The deal is that actresses who are good have probably never been better once they hit 40. Once I hit 40 I had charms that I didn't have when I was 30 and I want to use them."
Teri Garr, 53, who has appeared in more than 50 films, including Tootsie, insists that films should reflect the existence of older women in real life. "There are people who are my age and older who still exist in the world, so there should be writers who write stories that include them. There should be parts for us, even if they are smaller."
She adds: "I remember when I was young the great actresses telling me, 'Wait till they tell you your face has been ravaged by time'."
Diane Lane, 39, dislikes the vocabulary used to describe older women's looks. "If you want to live you must age. Beauty has to be a certain way [in Hollywood]." If you age, she says, "it is described as 'damaged beauty' or 'sad beauty' or 'aged beauty'." She adds: "Character actresses will always work freely because they are not coming from the immaculate time when one looked perfect." Adrienne Shelley, 38, the star of The Unbelievable Truth, tells of how much sex plays a part of being a Hollywood actress. She says: "I get a call in my car on the way to an audition from the agent. He said, 'What is really important is that they think you are f***able'.
"The man walks in and looks right at my tits and I saw in his face that there was no way I was going to get the part. And yet in the real world there is no way I would give this guy the time of day."
Lane urges women to make more of an issue of the problem. "When women don't want to talk about these issues it is so awful," she says. "Hiding away just perpetuates the problem.
"Women want to watch other women of their own age sometimes. All these young people are great but let them watch each other. We want to watch us."
Recently, I was leafing through one of the tabloids and read a piece comparing photos of a number of female stars, one with their makeup and special lighting, the other without. It's amazing how ordinary looking most of them really are.
I'm a Lord of the Rings fan and can tell you how ordinary-looking some of the 30+ male stars are in these films -- for instance, Viggo Mortensen and Sean Bean, both in their 40s, look much younger and are much better-looking in the movies than they do in real life.
that was in an era where great character actors were made, cherished, and loved....
there is not one actor today, neither male or female, that carries the weight of the Cary Grant's, and the Kate Hepburns' or there contemporaries....
maybe Merle Streep...and I suspect that Gary Sinese would be a hit back in the golden age of film.... .
these actresses have it exactly right about the Howood scene...but there duty is to buy the damn studios and put out good stuff to watch....
But these Howood ladies really need to take their grips to the Howood leading men....you know...the ones who perpetuate ultra liberal thinking and who never saw a leftist cause they didn't like...like Mike Farrell or Alan Alda or any of their ilk....
Which is the central point for the lack of male sympathy for the plight of aging actresses on this thread
The actresses in question are perceived as belonging to a class of women who considered themselves royalty because of their beauty, and now are upset that they have been deposed by younger usurpers. Meanwhile, the peasants who were beneath the ex-royalty's notice laugh.
The way guys are wired, they are most sexually attracted to healthy women in their prime childbearing years. The way women are wired, they are attracted to healthy, strong, high-status (in modern terms: wealthy/powerful) men who can provide for their children.
Older, ugly women, and poor, inept, low-status guys are similarly discriminated against in the mating game
I don't need foreskins from a baby.
heeheehee
LOL. Let me see if I can find a 10 foot pole for not touching this with.
What's to address? Movies with over-40's male actors make lots of money. Think Sean Connery. Harrison Ford. Bill Murray. Jack Nicholson.
Movies that are vehicles for over-40 women can attract an audience of over-40 women going with other over-40 women, but the audience is limited
When I was 24 I had a girlfriend who was 39. It was a good relationship -- she was interested in sex and being paid attention to, was past the point of worrying about her biological clock, or "where is this relationship going?", and appreciated a guy young enough to keep going with her for hours at a time
In many businesses, you get people with power using it for personal advantage. Whether it's a purchasing agent giving business to the supplier who gets him football tickets or the casting director accepting "free samples", it's not uncommon.
The intelligent ones balance immediate self-interest with long-term self-preservation. If your choice is between two suppliers and their bids are about equal, you can safely go with the one who wined and dined you. If you give a part to the girl who gives you a nice time, but she's terrible in the part, you won't stay casting director for long.
One woman I know used to be in investment banking. She was telling me that she had to sleep with the power brokers to get in on the good deals, but there was a "glass ceiling" on the deals she could get in on. It did not occur to her that her favors evaluated to be worth the risk of her screwing up a $N deal, but not worth the risk of her screwing up a $10N deal. She's also bitter that she got eased out after 35.
I'm well over 40, as is my wife. When you have somebody who is focused on making you happy, the fact that she's no longer 29 and 98 pounds is not important
On the other hand, when you have somebody who ONLY ever had looks going for her, whose looks were the ONLY reason men tolerated her company, it's a whole different story
As I tell my teen daughter: "Guys don't respect sluts. The defining characteristic of a slut is being such a loser that you HAVE to use your sexuality in order to get guys to tolerate having you around. Don't be a slut. Make sure you have substance behind the face, and you will have guys interested in hanging out with you. And how can you tell which guys are the ones who are interested in your substance rather than your breasts? They're the ones who stick around after you make it clear you're not dealing any out until marriage"
I had to chuckle wickedly after reading this.....
I don't always agree with your posts, but your take on what some older women want in a relationship may have some validity......:)
Just curious, and don't take this the wrong way, because I do agree with some of what you're say here....but what is your definition of a "male slut"? Do they even exist in your world?
I don't want to live in a world where a righteous dude like Jack ISN'T getting some hot young tail!
Male sluts exist, and they're called gigolos, but they don't have as much of a market as the call girls do
The true flip side of the slut is the sugar daddy. He's the guy the cute girl keeps around because he buys nice stuff and pays the bills. She tolerates him only because of what he provides, rather than liking him for who he is. She might even pretend to like him or love him, but it is as much an act as that of the "player" guy who tells his current bed-partner what she wants to hear.
In neither case is the slut or the sugar-daddy loved for what they are, only used for what they provide. In both cases there's a similar level of anger the first time they realize they are only being used by people who personally hold them in contempt. Some eventually resign themselves to taking what they can get.
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