A few years ago, Vulture wrote a really telling piece, “Leading Men Age, but Their Love Interests Don’t.” Such age discrepancies are something Hollywood likes to brush under the table. Vulture illustrated their piece with graphical charts that made the truth undeniable. The effect was both hilarious and sad.

Aging isn’t fair between the sexes no matter the context, but we see it happen in Hollywood before our very eyes. Actresses tend to peak early on in their career while male actors can pretend to be action stars well into their 60s. Kristen Scott Thomas has talked before about how men grow in gravitas and women disappear. She spoke in a larger context but also namechecked the few actresses over 40 who capture all the roles. Russell Crowe recently described the aging actress dilemma as a myth, and Meryl Streep backed him up while “literally waving off his remarks.” Well, the ethereal Kristen Scott Thomas (age 54) is here to say that Hollywood ageism is still disastrous, but she knows things will never change.

Kristin Scott Thomas told Sophie Raworth that ageism in Hollywood was a “disaster”, and that female actors are still losing out on roles to younger ones. “I won’t bore you with all the stories of older women not getting jobs in film because it’s so boring. But it’s true – it’s a disaster,” she said on BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show on Sunday.

When Raworth asked the 54-year-old actor why she thought it was boring, Scott Thomas replied: “Because it’s never going to change. Until the average life-span is 150 years or something, I don’t think women in their 50s are going to be considered at all viable. I think that’s what it is,” she said. “Sorry.”

Scott Thomas has spoken about watching herself age on screen in the past. In 2013, she said: “When you’re my age, you’re invariably in a supporting role, so there’s often a young woman in her twenties or early thirties who is the lead, and you’re constantly put next to them. You’re watching yourself get old, on a screen that hides nothing.”

She added that she would consider a face-lift, and said that women of her age became “invisible” to society.

[From Independent]

She’s correct — things will never change. The plain truth is that audiences readily accept an aging male as a “silver fox,” but women over 45-ish are relegated to “well, she looks good … for her age.” That’s a dreadful statement to make about a woman, and I bristle whenever I hear it. At the same time, I’m guilty of lusting for the silver foxes. Just take Michael Keaton as an example. He’s hitting a new stride in his 60s, and he’s hotter than he ever was at age 30. That’s exciting to watch, but would we ever see a film about an aging former female superhero? Not a chance.

Photos courtesy of WENN