Maggie Gyllenhaal was told she was too old to play opposite a 55 year-old man

By MiNDFOOD

Maggie Gyllenhaal
Maggie Gyllenhaal
Maggie Gyllenhaal perfectly illustrates Hollywood's problem with women who dare to age

Earlier this week the world seemed to lose its mind over the fact that Rebel Wilson might not be 29 as she claims and is actually 35 (honestly, who cares?!). However her reasons for doing make perfect sense when you hear this doozy of a quote from Maggie Gyllenhaal, who told The Wrap magazine this week,

“There are things that are really disappointing about being an actress in Hollywood that surprise me all the time. I’m 37 and I was told recently I was too old to play the lover of a man who was 55. It was astonishing to me. It made me feel bad, and then it made feel angry, and then it made me laugh.”

You only need to look at how many women in Hollywood cast as the mother to a man older than her, or any Woody Allen movie to know that this is an entirely plausible – and depressing – scenario.

As Vulture noted in 2013 with a series of graphs, leading men age but their love interests don’t.

The ridiculous of Hollywood’s ageism was perfectly parodied by comedian of the moment, Amy Schumer in a skit that saw Tina Fey, Patricia Arquette and Julia Louis-Dreyfus celebrate Louis-Dreyfus’ “last f*ckable day” (language warning for link) in Hollywood because she had reached the age that she was no longer believable as a love interest.

Louis-Dreyfus explains the celebration to Schumer in the skit as thus,

“In every actresses’ life, the media decides when you finally reach the point where you’re not believably f—able any more.”

Schumer told a panel at the Tribeca Film Festival that it took a while for her to find her dream cast and then when she did, the high profile women were on the same page as her when it came to the outrageous sexism that exists in Hollywood when it comes to age.

“They were kind of outraged by the same stuff that we thought was unfair also,” she said. 

 

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