Here are some photos of Maggie Gyllenhaal at the Gracie Awards a few nights ago. I’m still not feeling that haircut, and I’m not really feeling the Maleficent dress either. To me, Maggie has a baby face. She’s 37 years old, but I think she could probably pass for 30. Like, if she was cast as a 30 year old, I would probably believe that. I would also believe it if she was cast as a woman in her 40s, just because in interviews, Maggie does come across as older and more mature. What’s my point? Maggie could play any character from the ages of 30 to 45, pretty much. But for some reason, some Hollywood executive or producer told her that she was “too old” to play the spouse of a 55-year-old man. What the hell?
Maggie Gyllenhaal, an Oscar nominee getting Emmy buzz for her work on the Sundance miniseries “The Honourable Woman,” reveals that she was recently turned down for a role in a movie because she was too old to play the love interest for a 55-year-old man. No kidding.
“There are things that are really disappointing about being an actress in Hollywood that surprise me all the time,” she said during an interview for an upcoming issue of TheWrap Magazine. “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.”
Gyllenhaal declined to specify the project on which she was considered too old, but we’re wide open to suggestions. What’s casting out there with a 55-year-old leading man?
And despite the recent slam, Gyllenhaal said she was hopeful for women. “A lot of actresses are doing incredible work right now, playing real women, complicated women,” said the actress, who won a Golden Globe in January for her role in “The Honourable Woman” as an Anglo-Israeli businesswoman. “I don’t feel despairing at all. And I’m more looking with hope for something fascinating.”
Sadly, I bet most actresses in their 30s have similar stories. When you have Jennifer Lawrence playing a character who is supposed to be a mid-30s housewife, then all the system is pretty screwed up. When a 37 year old is considered “too old” to play against a 55-year-old man, then the system is pretty screwed up. Shall we burn it all down and start anew?
Photos courtesy of WENN.
It physically hurt me to read that headline. I actually said “ouch” out loud. Get your sh*t together, Hollywankers.
This pisses me off to NO end.
Me too Shambles.. Ridiculous
Pisses me off too, and I realize she would be in worse jeopardy of losing work if she named names, but I wish someone would point out the offender who thinks this way.
That is one attention-grabbing headline for all the wrong reasons. Makes me stabby!!
Pisses me off too.
One thing that I subconsciously knew, but was recently hit with the enormity of what it meant, was how much I as a viewer am MISSING OUT by not seeing a variety of mature women in TV and film. Orange is the New Black, and the performances of Kate Mulgrew and Lorraine Toussaint, made me realize how much talent that I do not get to see because of the lack of roles for women in this age range. That pisses me off so much!!!
The superficial standards of the “powers that be” produce a product that isn’t as great as it could be, because they ignore serious and powerful talent in favor of a flashy package.
Yes. Yes yes yes to everything you said Tiffany.
Excellent examples and you hit the nail on the head!
Glad to know I am not alone in this thinking! 😀
Once again wishing for a way to upvote or give a +1 Tiffany:)
Watch that new show with Jane Fonda on Netflix? Breath of fresh air im telling ya
I can not tell you the many wrong ways in which this rubs me.
If you were a genie in a bottle, GNAT, I would rub you the right way.
Maybe? No? Idk. I’m trying to lighten the mood here.
Lol, thank you, Shambles. It actually annoys me a little, but if can’t say I’m surprised.
This gives me rage. Men and their crazy out of touch fantasies.
She looks so much like Jake, it’s so weird to me. Probably because my sisters and I look nothing like each other, so when siblings do, I find it fascinating. Yes, I’m entertained by small things in life.
Could have been a female producer. The self-hate and self-oppression of all groups is VERY real!
How sad is that? And Hollywood wonders why.
To me she always looked way older than her real age. In these pics she looks 45.
The fact she was excluded for such a stupid reason is inexcusable though
i find her very frumpy and old looking. a lot of times she looks like she needs a shower and change of clothes.
She has an odd face. Her featues are round and not particularly sharp, which makes her look very young, but she’s also very squinty and her skin sometimes looks pretty damaged, which makes her look pretty old.
I like Maggie a lot, though, she’s talented and seems like a normal and easy-going woman. And the excuse given by the producer is crazy and ridiculous.
LOL. That’s crazytalk. Her skin is that of a newborn baby. Gorgeous.
Hollywood is run by ugly people who take there sh&t out on the pretty people. Sorta like the social media employees of the net.
I think the haircut is the reason. This haircut makes her look older than she really is.
Yes, pretty sure it’s the haircut. She looks like a suburban GOP housewife with that Laura Bush helmet do. Longer, softer hair would take years off her instantly. Damn those Hollywood casting directors though. Superficial demigods of nothingness.
Paola, I agree on both counts.
(a) It is a lasting stupid sexist thing re actresses in Hollywood.
(b) BUT, though she is a stunning actress, she has looked older as long as I can remember. Old fashioned styling? Sort of a “weary from life energy” from her eyes? Is it the hair? I sometimes think it’s the hair. My friends actually discussed this once after seeing her in a movie. WHAT is it?
She is unique and actually that’s probably to her her lasting benefit. She’s distinctive, and that has value. She was great in Crazy Heart, has beautiful skin etc.
But I can see this IF the part was specifically supposed to be younger or a different sort of energy for some actual plot point reason (vs. the usual Hollywood casting wheezing 80 yr old men with 24 yr olds) they might choose another actor. Not all actors are up for the same roles.
Fine let’s say she looks older than 37. She still looks younger than 55. At most she looks like she is in her 40s. That is just a crazy thing to say to her. Any guesses on the guy?
you are right
it seems like zach galifwhoever and seth rogen make movies non stop. does anyone question their looks? i mean i do, but it seems like casting agents, producers etc have no problems with them.
She’s a stunning woman, but Maggie has always had a matronly look. IMO
The producer is a idiot. Why a 55year old man should have a wife in her 20s?Hollywood doesnt like mature women..That’s why most actresses in their 50s and 60s say that they arent offered roles or ruin themselves with plastic surgeries in order to stay young.
Maggie looks older than her age not 30 but ok.
Heaven forbit a grown-ass man should have a partner on the same maturity level in similar stages of their lives. But no, apparently the fantasy is to have a daughter you get to screw!
And when we say that, people call us man-hater. What a f*** up world.
It must have been a Woody Allen film.
Lmfao.
I don’t even think FingerBinger is joking. Seriously now, is Woody Allen casting for something atm? This is TOTALLY up his alley.
You are not lying.
Nicely done… Maybe Roman Polanski?
I’m with Maggie. I went from anger, to frustration, to laughing at how ridiculous it is. There’s just no greater response than “W T F ?”
Trying to see the light on the end of the tunnel: Perhaps the story revolves around a 55-year old pervert chasing teenage girls? No? Damn, then I’ve got nothing.
Well, I was going to say that we don’t know the plot. It may have been about a man who leaves his wife for a younger woman and then is sorry and comes crawling back on his hands and knees only to find her looking better than ever, with a new boyfriend and she just won the lottery. But probably not.
I was thinking that too, but I don’t think that would upset Maggie or make her take this public. I really want to know the project, and the 55 year old actor.
Ha!
Let’s make THAT movie!
I agree that she has always looked older than her real age, mainly due to her hair and clothes. But in these pics in particular I feel like she looks MUCH older than 37. Has she had some weird fillers put in or Botox gone wrong? Sometimes too much makes women look older.
Wasn’t it North by Northwest where Cary Grants mother was played by an actress his own age? ‘Twas ever so, on the silver screen.
She was just a few years older..in the Manchurian candidate, Angela lansbury was 2 or 3 years older than her screen son..She played Elvis’s mom too..ten year difference. Most films are written by, produced and controlled by men who evidently live out their fantasy of old guy with much younger girl in their work. No matter how much they do it, we’re going to roll our eyes at the old sugar daddy character.
Remember that Angelina Jolie acted Colin Farrell’s mother in Alexander .It was so weird when they were on screen together
Isn’t Marion Cotilard playing Fassbanger mama?
@Lori No, Fassbender plays Macbeth and Marion plays his wife, Lady Macbeth.
Given there’s no context here, I guess my first question would be was the film based on or inspired by a real person who was married to a much younger woman, or was it important to the plot/character development that the character be married to a much younger woman?
I can’t really get up in arms about this without knowing a bit more about the role in question. There’s a lot of films where a huge age gap actually serves a purpose to the story.
Jeff Goldblum is playing the lead. I don’t really know that, but it sounds right.
Jeff Goldblum is 62 now. Out of curiosity, I just googled 55-year old actors and there’s a lot of them. The most famous are Colin Firth, Hugh Grant, David Duchovny, Sean Penn, Stanley Tucci, Antonio Banderas, Tony Goldwyn, Timothy Hutton, Hugo Weaving, Kenneth Branagh and James Spader (her partner from Secretary).
I don’t think she would be this upset if the story was really about the May-December relationship.
Dear God, Sean Penn is only 55? I thought he was around 70.
My first guess was that mall cop thing with Kevin James. He has a history of requesting hot women to act opposite him. Don’t know how old he is though.
If it’s a real person, then fine enough, but if it’s important to the plot/character development, then I still question why we have so many movies about older men and younger women. People make choices at every step in the development process, and the bias toward portraying these couples doesn’t seem to be based in some sort of unusual public demand for these stories. I think it’s more likely the bias is on the parts of the creators, who are telling stories that make men in their positions feel good.
But here’s the thing – even when they’re playing real people, like in that Tom Cruise movie that had an article today, the studios *still* cast too young for the wife role! I also don’t think Maggie would have mentioned it if it was absolutely necessary to the plot for a woman to be that much younger. Frankly I’m tired of seeing only the type of pairings you find in Woody Allen films. Give me more Laura Linney as a leading lady on my screen!
In the description, Gyllenhaal says she was told she couldn’t play the LOVER of the 55 year old, not the wife as the headline says. So I think that might affect the context. Maybe the 55 year old is chasing much younger women and Gyllenhaal doesn’t read “young enough” (as in how she physically looks since I don’t think she has a baby face like Amy Adams or Natalie Portman before she got skinnier) to play the type of lover the 55 year old is chasing?
Maggie and Peter are such a cute couple!
The reason he or any executive producer will say it because they was a young sweet play thing to be a wife of a dirty old 55 year man. And als that man is probably a 55 year old man who wants young sweet pleasure of a woman to be tier play thing. This is sexist app and Hollywood is just plain pathetic, when will actress just protest already.
Gag. That headline is so messed up. Someday, H’wood won’t be run by old white guys. Can’t get here soon enough.
That’s a nice dream but it won’t happen.
So! What say you, Russell Crowe?
Still think Hollywood is fair to female actors?
the headline is sad but she has always looked a lot older than she is. i can’t be the only one who thinks this, right?
You think she looks older than 55?
i don;’t think she looks for sure older than 55 but if someone went up to me and said she was 50 i wouldn’t have much trouble believing them. what i am saying is yeah this is a bad thing to hear and all but she definitely doesn’t look 37 to me anyways.
50?!?! I don’t mean to be rude, but are you a teenager?
I think her biggest issue is the haircut and clothing choices. She could probably look younger, but she chooses not to. And that’s fine BTW.
I don’t think she looks 55, but I don’t think she has that youngish look that someone like Winona Ryder or Natalie Portman has either (those two could probably be cast as 20 somethings even when they’re 50. I’m sort of half-kidding, but at the same time…). Part of that could also do with the presence she has — she does carry herself like an actual adult in her roles and her voice is deeper (I think). I am baffled by her fashion choices — it’s fine if she wants to look like that, but I wonder if how frumpy she looks affects her casting in certain roles. If she’s an actress looking to be seen in a different light, maybe she could temporarily dress the part until she gets cast in the role and has the desire to play that role out of her system.
I think she looks older than her age in real life, when she styles herself. but onscreen she plays a lot closer to her age.
i find her more asexual than old looking. it’s her clothes and styling. every nun in my school had that haircut.
I like Maggie, but I was shocked to read she is only 37, I also thought she was at least 48- 50, she has a matronly look……
But that said…..In Hollywood years 35 is a hard time for a lot of actresses unless they have a certain youthful quality like Reese Witherspoon and some others.
Maggie is not a household name and she is matronly looking, no matter how talented she is, that is going to play into casting her for some roles.
She has a matronly look about her so I kind of get why she wouldn’t be chosen for certain parts…but in this case it’s ridiculous.
She’s 18 years younger but not young enough for a 55-year-old? LOL
Diane Lane and Richard Gere were about 15 years apart, like, even less that this 18-year age difference Maggie mentioned. So all I’ve got to say is Unfaithful (Diane 37, hot lover Oliver Martinez, aging husband – Richard Gere 52). Nuf said.
How can a woman 18 years younger not be considered young enough? Maybe they didn’t think she was sexy enough and young enough by these pervs. George Clooney talked about ageism for actresses over 40 and gave that quote once from a producer that turned down a suggestion of a great actress over 40 for a part because she wasn’t “fvckable.”
.
Clooney is 55, right? No great surprise if he ends up being the lead in a movie where a 37-year-old is considered too old for him.
When I hear stories like this I don’t begrudge any actress who lies about her age. Producers don’t look at your talent or what you could believable play. They look at your age and dismiss you. She’s only 37 and they’re telling her she’s too old, can you imagine what she’s going to be told when she’s 40 or 45?
I like the dress actually, but I idolize morticia and Elvira.
And unless there was a good plot reason for the age gap, then Hollywood is still in need of serious help.
I don’t think she has a baby face at all, although I do find it highly flawed that she wouldn’t be allowed to play the wife of a 55 year old at her youthful age of 37.
God I’ve loved her since Secretary and Donnie Darko. I think she’s a unique beauty and extremely talented. This just pisses me off even more.
OT, my bff almost tripped her during intermission of a play. He said she was so sweet to him and made him not feel bad about it. And she signed autographs to a few kids who were there as well . So kind!
I love her in those movies also.
I like her as an actress, good to hear she was nice in real life too. I’m not surprised, she doesn’t seem like a diva type, but good to know.
I always thought she was a bit older than me (38) but regardless, no way she’s “too old” to be cast with a 55 year old man.
She’s so beautiful- this story makes me sad. Male actors can be not so attractive or slim or young but women always have to be models it makes me sick. I thought jlaw was far too young for her role in American Hustle but I thought I was the only one
No you aren’t the only one re JLaw-and she was decidedly too young for Serena.
I couldn’t get behind her in Silver Linings Playbook, either. She just looked like a kid compared to everyone else! And the *small spoiler alert* love interest with Bradley Cooper’s character made me squirm in my seat. Watching them kiss was like watching him kiss his little sister.
I hated Silver Linings Playbook. I couldn’t believe the hype that surrounded it.
I actually think jennifer lawrence looks older than her age, like late 20s, 28-32.
Hotpockets, me too! Every time I hear someone saying SLP wasn’t good, a tear of joy falls down.
it was a glorified miscast lifetime movie
ITA about SLP…. I tried but, what on EARTH was everyone so excited about?! And that goes double for American Hustle. Loved the costumes…. but did anyone else figure out why we should’ve cared about anything else?
And this is why I avoid movies where romantic leads have a large age difference. Writers and directors enjoy these stories because most of them are men and enjoy the idea of guys like them with young women, even though couples like this are fairly rare in real life. If audiences don’t avoid these movies, there’s nothing to keep them from indulging themselves in this way.
Yup, me too. I just avoid those movies now. I am sick and tired of women being treated like they’re large screen TVs and be completely defined by a single number.
Same here.
What’s interesting is they have FINALLY started seriously researching the male part of the fertility equation and it declines fairly rapidly with age. The older he is after 34 the less likely a woman is to get pregnant, the longer it usually takes, and the higher the risk for miscarriage and a number of genetic illnesses, including Down Syndrome. A 45 year old will usually take two and a half years to get a very young woman pregnant and one study found half of young women with men in their 40s still weren’t pregnant a year later. There are several studies like this and they are starting to get press.
Interesting!
Right??? Unless he has a lot of money, what 28 year old woman is going to date a 55 year greying old man?? Hahaaha!!!
If it’s true, then it’s terrible. But what is the context? If the 55-year-old man is supposed to be in a relationship with a 20 something woman, and that’s written in the script, then maybe she’s not right for the part. She has, despite her baby face, a certain kind of serene intelligence and timeless beauty that somehow does make her seem more mature than her years (to me anyway). And the haircut is not helping, sorry.
Whichever Hollywood exec told her that is a sad and pathetic person. Sh*t like that really grinds my gears.
Is it casting directors that decide this, or do the older male actors specify that they want a pretty young thing to be their love interest when they’re middle aged?
Thank you for mentioning Jennifer Lawrence playing 30 somethings. That sort of always bothered me.
This actually drives me crazy, and I didn’t even really like “American Hustle”……David O. Russell switched the ages of the wife and the mistress. Meaning, if he had done the story true to life, JLaw would’ve been the lead, and Amy Adams would’ve been the wife i.e. the real Irv Rosenfeld’s wife was older/his age, while his girlfriend was about twenty years younger. So JLaw WASN’T playing a thirty something housewife….she was playing someone who was probably only a few years older than her. This was explained from the get go, and rehashed in a few posts, so it drives me crazy when people keep bringing JLaw up as someone who “stole” a role from someone older. She didn’t.
…..but for the rest of her life, people will state as fact that she stole that role, played a 30-something, oh, and probably released her own private nude pics too, because why not, she’s young and beautiful and rich and famous so let’s tear her down.
I’m 41 married to a 50 year old man. By Hollywood standards he must be a widower.
Poor Mr. Poe.
LOL!
It is so brave of him to stay by your side!
My mom is turning 51 and my dad is turning 38……she must be his grandma now.
Go your mom!
I don’t know if anyone else has mentioned this in this post but Amy Schumer did a skit with Patricia Arquette, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Tina Fey called Last F*%kable Day and it perfectly sums up this problem. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPpsI8mWKmg
I would like to known the name of the film – so I do not see it.
Like in everything one of the problems is that actresses who are too young to play certain roles play them anyway, they don’t say “no” because it’s just good for their careers. I actually respect an actress or actor who feels wrong for a role despite what the casting says and decides to refuse the ego trip of doing it.
When he age factor becomes too nonsense it’s like a bad wig in a character, I just don’t buy it and don’t understand how someone who is behind the film project doesn’t defend it properly, how they’re ok about twisting reality in ways that will take away our suspension of disbelief.
And this is why i dont fault actresses who lie about their ages…
Speaking of JLaw playing jnconvincingly a 30-year -old (lol), i couldny atomache Will Smith’s last movie love interest. I think he is almost twice the Margot Robbie’s age. Ew!
And we all wonder why perfectly lovely actresses in their late 20s/early 30s are going under the knife for cosmetic surgery! Sheesh. No wonder so many actresses look like some sort of feline/human hybrid by the time they’re 45!
The usual boys club. The fact is that most of these guys date women and/or men barely out of their twenties and cast them just to shut them up. Which would account for most of bad casting in Hollywood.
No wonder people like Rebel Wilson lie about their age. Rebel looks so young though. She’s still playing college student roles.
I still can’t get over Emma Stone playing Colin Firth’s love interest in the “Magic in the Moonlight”. I found it so disturbing. There is like 30 years age difference between them.
Funny that you would think she looks younger then her age, because for me I always thought she looked older by like 10 years.
When she was in Batman I thought she was already 37-38.
I think it’s because of her drooping cheek bones or something.
Never found her that attractive either even in the secretary.
None the less it is bad if it was really for that reason she wasn’t hired.
If I was 55 I would want a Julia Luis Dreyfuss as a love interest\co-star.
She’s hot and in no way she looks in her 50’s.
This explains why I keep getting hit on by men in their fifties on online dating sites! Hollywood is leading them to believe a 37 year old woman would actually date them! GAH.
True. I think a lot of men have been conditioned by the media to want younger women and not want age appropriate women. It’s not just the movies though, there’re plenty of male celebrities with much younger wives and girlfriends as well. Someone should make a documentary about the many ways Hollywood warps the public’s expectations of relationships.
My daughter is on an online site, and she is 20 and all these late- 30 somethings keep hitting on her. She is totally grossed out.
@Jib, I’m the exact same age as Maggie Gyllenhall and on two online dating sites and the same thing is happening – the only men contacting me are over 50, and not just 50, think 55 and up. It does gross me out! And then the guys my age won’t give me the time of day. I haven’t tried dating yet in real life, I’m too scared! But I remember being your daughter’s age and how much it would gross me out when guys in their late 30’s would hit on me in bars, so I feel for her.
It’s funny, I actually had this argument with my ex (late 30’s, divorced, one kid) when he was trying to tell me it was okay for his also divorced late 30’s brother to hit on twenty-year-olds. I told him – no, they’re grossed out, they’re just being polite – and he wouldn’t believe me! And now my ex is trying to hook up with twenty-five year olds…rolls eyes. I really wish Hollywood would present realistic relationships because if this crap is why we’re having to put up with this kind of behavior it’s insanely frustrating.
Hollywood is so ridiculous and gross sometimes, isn’t it? Imaging being that guy sitting in that casting call, and saying the words out loud..”you’re too old” to 37 year old Maggie without even the slightest hint of irony or self-awareness. How many years of utter douchebaggery go into forming a mind into something that can perform such a stunt?
I remember reading something on here a few weeks back about how now that Suki Waterhouse is single, all of these Hollywood men wanted to meet her..Tom Cruise, Leo….they all wanted in. I get that it’s more difficult for celebrities to meet people, but really, what is it that these guys, the youngest of whom is 40… what is it that they think they can offer a 23 year old who already has money, fame, etc. Hollywood men are picking hot young things out of a lineup like they’re ordering capris from the f***ing Boden catalog.
Now there’s a thought. What if we could ALL order-up a mate as if we were catalog shopping….”I’m quite tall…have a long inseam… Tell me miss, do you have anything in a Hiddleston? I worry that this Cruise model is going to be a bit on the short side….”
Aaaand now I’ve made this a Hiddles thread. You’re welcome Fireflies.
I’ll be 41 tomorrow… Guess all these years I’ve been too old for my 52 year old husband, and not the other way around? Good grief, Hollywood f*#k$ with people’s heads. Down with these dumbasses!!
Just, Ugh. That’s all I can be bothered saying to this.
In 1988 Sally Field played the love interest in “Punchline” opposite Tom Hanks. She was 42 and he was 32. Key to the plot line is a woman trying to get back her dream after giving it all up to conform to the most common interpretation of a good wife and mother. Hanks, in a great unrecognized performance, is comic who could be a star if he can keep his demons at bay. They actually cast a woman of the right age. Let’s not dwell on the fact that Field had the face of thirty year old and the body of a 20 year old. One battle at a time. And guess who took the hit when the movie tanked?
Anyhow, by the time 1994 rolls around she is now Hank’s MOTHER in that movie about the perpetual child Forrest Gump.
Ugh. I’m starting to get really creeped out by all these films with an actress in her twenties playing the love interest of a much older actor.
same here, it’s just creepy as hell sometimes
So sad and pathetic. I have watching movies and the leading man is at least 20 years senior the leading lady. Draft Day with kevin Costner and Jennifer Garner was one Irecently watched. I remember laughing at how unbelievable the match up was and how pathetic the movie was for putting them together.
People are blaming this on elderly perves in showbiz, which is totally accurate, but let’s also bear in mind the are women right here on this thread agreeing with them.
If enough of the public wanted to see women in age appropriate roles, they would cast them. Because they want the maximum amount of people to pay to go and see the films.
So it’s not just the bigwigs, it’s the general masses.
Bingo!
I’m tired of this double standard. I don’t see many people my age- 20 something’s, with 55 year olds! Very rarely