Emma Thompson’s Life Changing Stance

Emma Thompson, you might have heard of her, a little old actress, she has shown support for an anti-aging campaign taking place in Hollywood after findings found that films are more likely to star an actor called Chris or a talking animal than a woman over 60. So the study was done by the Age Without Limit and it found that just five of the 100 highest grossing films of the past three years have starred a woman older than 60. And speaking off the back of that, Emma said, women are half the population and we get older. So where are the stories about us? The older we get, the more interesting we are. I want to see more films center on aging women. We are compelling, relatable and overdue for center stage. Older women don't need permission to exist on screen. They already exist in the world. Cinema just needs to catch up. That same study also found that women characters over the age of 50 were found to speak 14% less than their male counterpart. Now, this isn't the first time Emma Thompson has talked about aging in Hollywood. She's always talked about, I think from years and years ago, about cosmetic surgery and how she doesn't understand why women get it. In 2022, when she was 63, she talked about doing a nude scene in a movie and she said, I don't think I could have done it before the age I am. And yet, of course, the age I am makes it extremely challenging because we aren't used to seeing untreated bodies on screen. When this study came out, it was really shocking to me because I feel like we've grown up with actresses like Emma Thompson and Meryl Streep, who I remember seeing them when I was younger. They were like what Hollywood would call their prime, where they were like very insurable. They were very much in the center stage and Hollywood wanted them to be in the center stage. And then it feels like slowly over years, they slowly started to drip feed them out of our cinema experience. And we haven't realized that until a study like this comes out. And it feels like I've just been gaslit into thinking that these women, like when I think of Emma Thompson, I think she's always on my screen. And then a study like this comes out and I'm like, oh my God, she actually hasn't been. In fact, like one of the highest grossing movies of this year was Super Mario Bros, which had both Chris and talking animals. And that was over Emma Thompson. And I don't know, it feels like Hollywood has sneakily tried to throw this under the rug, but it is a huge, huge issue. Yeah, it is such a huge issue. And I have to say, I actually like the fact that you're saying you're surprised by this because I'm not proud of the reaction I had when this story started. You're like, yeah, you're in the wrong. I know, you were like, of course. Well, that's the thing, like this study came out yesterday, Emma Thompson's comments came out yesterday and I saw so many people I know who aren't even in the industry reposting it. People I work with are putting it like in our channels that we work in, our Slack channels, like we should write about this, we should cover this. And my response was like a bit of an eye roll, because I was like, yeah, women in Hollywood who are over 50 don't get roles and the sky is blue and Taylor Swift wears a clip in Fringe. Like, are we just all stating facts now? Like we're just all, like this is not new information. But just because it's not new information doesn't mean we shouldn't be shocked by it. I think I've just known this for so long and I'm so aware of it that it just felt like, yeah, that's how the world is. But it should be shocking that the statistics are like you'll see a talking animal or a Chris more so than a woman. And I guess like that happened on the Devil Wears Prada press tour, like when I was in that room with Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep's like, I can't believe I'm getting roles in my like late 70s. She's like, I never imagined it, like I would be in a lead in a movie. And she's like, and that's something I thought of recently. Like she thought that when the Devil Wears Prada script came to her. And I remember that being shocking, like Meryl Streep. Multiple Oscar winner, beloved, like actress, people of all generations know her name. And she's shocked that she has a lead in a movie. It's quite disappointing. And I feel like it comes back to our conversation when we were discussing Devil Wears Prada 2. We were talking about the power of making films for women because women will always buy the movie tickets. Women will always be the fan base and like gather their friends and go watch cinema. And I think the issue here is that movies traditionally made for men, women are still also seeing it. Yeah. So we're also still contributing to the success of those movies, but men aren't doing it the same for like the Devil Wears Prada 2 and rom-coms. Yeah, exactly. Like it's kind of a split market. And I guess like we have been a little bit gaslit as like Emma and other women are saying, because there are some women on our screens at the moment, like a Nicole Kidman or like a Sandra Bullock who are in their mid to late 50s. Or Demi Moore. Demi Moore, yes, yes, who are in their mid to late 50s, who are on the red carpets wearing these incredible gowns, who are leading movies. But it's just because they're on that precipice where they don't look like they're in their 50s. So like we've let them slide through, but there's some other women who, like an Emma Thompson, who's like, yeah, I just look my age, like I look like a woman who's in my 60s and 70s. And so like she's not getting parts now. And it's kind of interesting, the scene she's referring to of like being in a nude scene in her 60s was for the movie Good Luck to Leo Grant. I love that movie. How good is that movie? She's amazing in it. That movie should have won every Oscar. I still can't believe it didn't. If anyone hasn't seen it, it's on multiple streaming services now. So it's everywhere. You can go and watch it. And she came to Australia to promote that film from Emma Thompson because she wanted people, she really wanted to talk about it. It was with an Australian film director who made the movie, so she really wanted to champion it. So she came to Australia and she was on the spill for that movie. And she and I went and sat in the marble bar at the Margot Kimpton. Yeah. Slay. Chic. For a podcast, maybe not the best audio, but I think it sounded good. And we just sat there for an hour and talked. And she talks about that nude scene and like how she didn't find it super like empowering, but because like, it was just like, she's like, this is my body, this is what it looked like because she's naked so much in the movie. But it's because her character hires a male escort because she wants to like feel an orgasm for the first time. She wants to have sex differently in her 60s. And that's like kind of the story. And it's like so beautifully, beautifully done. But she talked to me about the pressure of like not wanting to like change her face. And she knows so many women can't even look in the mirror like her character does at her body at any stage and all these things. And it was this kind of like emotional revolution. And I know people love that movie, but it didn't, I just kind of helped me think if that was like an older actress, the younger man and done in a more salacious way, it would have been a blockbuster. Yeah. But like those scenes of her like observing her body and like finding what feels good, like hit me in such a different way. The thing I can only compare it to recently was Anne Hathaway in the idea of you where there's a scene where she like gets into a great about her body because she's amongst like younger women and she looks the exact same. Yes. That's the hard thing I've felt now with like re-watching because she's meant to be, and she's just turned 40, which in that movie, everyone's acting like her life is over. I mean, I understand every decade that you change is like a bit of, but in that, like women start their careers in 40s. Yeah. Women have children in their 40s. Like it's a whole thing. Like obviously yes. Yeah. Like every, I get, I don't want to like diminish the aging can stress you out, but like, it's weird watching the idea of you and seeing Anne Hathaway look like the ideal of like youth and beauty and everyone being like, she's so decrepit. Yeah. And I'm like, she looks like all her co-stars, like the exact same age. Again, like maybe if they had cast a much older actress who maybe that would have hit differently, but I'm like, what do you mean? She's hotter than him. It's the same thing. I'm like, I'm trying to re-watch Younger recently, one of my fave shows as like a bit of a comfort background watch. And it's so confronting with like the women who turned 30 in that series and acting like their lives are over, but also the lead, obviously the whole point is that she's 40. Yeah. And she's acting like, and like the first season, she's like, it's really hard for me to get out of bed. Like I lost my eyesight, my arms don't move. And I was like, girl, are you not 70? Oh my God. But again, that's how media portrays it. And I think coming back around to this study, it's like, there's these kinds of like, and a lot of actresses have talked about this. And there's also a great quote from the First Wives Club, which I've really talked about six times this week on this podcast, where Goldie Hawn's character, cause she's an aging actress who's facing that being in her forties and going into her fifties of like, there's no roles. She's like, there's Ingenue, District Attorney and Crone. It's like, you're the really, and I'm like that movie was made in the nineties. And how is it still true in Hollywood today? There's like Ingenue's sexy, like, you know, young thing. District Attorney is kind of like, I'm still a bit sexy, but I've got my life together. I'm a woman. I wear glasses. I wear glasses and a heel and that's probably like meant to be like 30. And then Crone is like 50. And that's it. And it's like, just like a witch in the woods. Well, that's the thing Meryl Streep has said when she turned 50, she got offered three witch roles and she only took one of them. She's like, please enough. Yes. I just find the thing is also like, it's not that I even want more stories about aging. And I think also that's what Emma Thompson's saying. Like, it's not like we want every movie to be about a woman being in her fifties and sixties and talking about being in her fifties and sixties. It's like, you just want those actresses in multiple roles and they're just like there and their story, like that's their story, but it doesn't have to be their entire narrative arc. Yeah. I mean, we keep doing it with Brad Pitt. He drove a freaking like F1 car. Yeah. Come on. Yeah. And again, like Tom Cruise is like making these huge blockbuster action movies. Tom Cruise is still doing flips in the air. In his like, coming into his seventies and no one's like, Tom, you have to go play a warlock now and nothing else. And they're still getting like love stories with these younger women and no one's like, wow. And it's not the plot point. It's not that. That's the thing. Like Tom Cruise will kiss a 30 year old woman, both in real life and on screen. And no one thinks it has to be like a catalyst for a conversation about men versus women and aging. They're just like, yeah, that's Tom Cruise and he kisses hot women who are his co-stars. It's so true. So I just think all those actresses, like we can't lose some of our best actresses when they hit 40. No. And you can't go into, and like, we as like women, like can't only be seeing stories of like super young women or witches. Well, Hollywood should know that. And I love witches. Because we love when we're on their side. Yeah. But also like, it can't be just like you look old and you have to be a witch. There's only so many Brad Pitt and Car movies I can watch. Yeah.