This is what Russell Crowe said to the Australian magazine Women’s Weekly about women in acting who have spoken out about the lack of good roles for actresses over 40:
To be honest, I think you’ll find that the woman who is saying that (the roles have dried up) is the woman who at 40, 45, 48, still wants to play the ingénue, and can’t understand why she’s not being cast as the 21 year old.
Meryl Streep will give you 10,000 examples and arguments as to why that’s bullshit, so will Helen Mirren, or whoever it happens to be. If you are willing to live in your own skin, you can work as an actor. If you are trying to pretend that you’re still the young buck when you’re my age, it just doesn’t work.
Frankly, such comments are not a surprise from Crowe, who has a reputation for speaking his unpopular opinions, as is his right. But still, he’s a famous Academy Award winning actor and his words carry weight. In this instance he’s giving weight to an opinion that is built on sexism in Hollywood. That sexism has not only created a real lack of roles for women in their 40s and 50s, but now apparently blames that problem on the actresses struggling to find work. So it behooves us all to reflect on Crowe’s words to ensure that we all understand he is wrong.
Roles for women do change as they age. It is not bullshit to to call out Hollywood for this problem. It’s acknowledging reality. Pointing to Meryl Streep, who is perhaps the most celebrated actress in film history, to prove that the general attitude towards women in the movies is make-believe is not going to cut it. The exception rarely proves the rule.
But since Crowe points to Streep, let me do the same.
Back in 2011, discussing the distance between male and female characters, Streep told 60 Minutes that “Hollywood hates strong-minded women,” and cares little for discerning, mature tastes because discerning, mature viewers don’t buy toys and games. “They work hard to get rid of you,” she said.
The next year on NPR’s Fresh Air, Streep spoke of the difficulties for actresses who are no longer fuckable.
I remember when I turned 40, I was offered, within one year, three different witch roles. To play three different witches in three different contexts. It was almost like the world was saying or the studios were saying, ‘We don’t know what to do with you.’ … I think there was, for a long time in the movie business, a period of — when a woman was attractive and marriageable or fuckable, that was it. And then they didn’t know what to do with you until you were the lioness in winter, until you were 70, and then it was OK to do Driving Miss Daisy … [and] things like that. But that middle period — the most vibrant of a woman’s life, arguably, from 40 to 60, no one knew what to do with them. That really has changed, not completely, not for everybody, but for me it has changed.
That change, I suppose, is one of the benefits of being Meryl Streep.
I think you can name the actresses in that age range who are making it happen … and not much else beyond that. Though, I would argue TV has opened up roles for women over 40 that are far less cringe-inducing; The Closer, Damages, How To Get Away With Murder are a few examples. Still, a long way to go.
That’s true Stephanie. TV is a very different situation, and long has been. That’s where Helen Mirren found her success. Many others, too..