In a interview with The Wrap Magazine Gyllenhall, who was nominated for an Academy Award and currently stars in the IFC series “The Honourable Woman,” said that she was recently turned down for a film because, according to Tinsel Town, she’s too old to be a love interest. As reported in a blurb on The Wrap’s website, Gyllenhall said specifically:
“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 me feel angry, and then it made me laugh.”
That truly sucks. I have always hated how in mainstream films, an older shriveled up actor is always cast as the love interest of a young beautiful woman half his age. But that’s the white male ego for y’all. For once, it seems, white women are in a position worse than Black women. Or it could be that, once again, the mainstream has lumped all women into one category in spite of what might not be a universal problem.
Either way, this ageism crap really isn’t a Black woman’s issue. What I mean is that when it comes to Black Hollywood, love has no age.
Let’s take last year for example. While white actresses like Gyllenhall were being tossed aside for younger models, Black actresses above thirty were coming into their own and finding love all over the place. Like Regina Hall, age 43, who had played opposite Kevin Hart, 35, in “About Last Night” and Terrence J, who is only 33 years old, in “Think Like a Man Too.” In fact, Hall will be 44 years old when she revives her part of Candy, the former sexy stripper in “The Best Man Wedding” next year. Let me say that again: 44 years old.
Hall is not the only one who appears to be drinking from the anti-discriminatory fountain of youth. Edwina Finley, 35, also co-starred with Hart in “Get Hard.” Then there are Gabrielle Union, age 42, Sherri Shephard, 48, and Rosario Dawson, age 36, who all played love interests of 50-year-old Chris Rock in “Top Five.”
In fact, Black film has long shown love and appreciation for the cultivated woman. For instance, Queen Latifah was 41 years old and Paula Patton was 35 years old when they both played love interests of the now 43-year-old rapper Common. Patton, again, was 38 when she played a young bride in Jumping the Broom. Janet Jackson, 49, Jill Scott, 43, Tasha Smith, 44, and Sharon Leal, who is a shocking 43 (seriously she looks got-damn great), were well into their thirties and beyond when they starred in the first “Why Did I Get Married,” which came out in 2007 and even more seasoned in “Why Did I Get Married Too,” which was released in 2010. In fact, it would seem that out of all the Black films, which centered around May-December romances, it is usually the Black woman who is “Getting her Groove Back.” By the way, Angela Basset was 39 years old when she played Stella.
And it is not just in the roles of love interests where Black women are shinning. “Selma,” which was directed by 42-year-old Ava DuVernay, starred several Black women well into their 30s and beyond, including Carmen Ejogo who will be 42 this year, Lorraine Toussaint, who is 55, Niecy Nash who is 45 and Oprah Winfrey who is 61. In fact, the youngest recognizable actress in the film was Tessa Thompson who is 31 years old. Even the white women cast in the film were middle-aged women, including Tara Ochs, who is 38, and Elizabeth Wells Berkes and Haviland Stillwell, who both don’t have their ages listed anywhere online, which is a tell-tale sign that neither are spring chickens anymore – at least by White Hollywood standards.
White actresses have longe complained about sexism, particularly around the issue of ageism, in Hollywood, but perhaps the answer has been under their orthopedic shoes the entire time. Perhaps actress like Gyllenhall should consider auditioning for roles in the next Tyler Perry flick — he loves a mature woman — or better yet, perhaps Hollywood should consider hiring more Black creatives. Obviously, they are not scared of a mature woman.
