The way women are being depicted on screen is changing, thanks to films like Babygirl, The Substance, and The Idea of You.
It’s long been the precedent that while the men get older onscreen, the women stay the same age, with ageing female stars finding it more difficult to land the kinds of interesting roles that male actors would get without a second thought. Goldie Hawn probably put Hollywood’s skewed view of women best in The Five Wives Club when she said: “There are only three ages for women in Hollywood: babe, district attorney, or Driving Miss Daisy.”
It’s a ridiculous sentiment. Women age, so why wouldn’t audiences want to see stories about that on the silver screen? Well it seems Hollywood has finally got that message if the recent slate of movies centred on women is anything to go by.
Demi Moore, Nicole Kidman, and Laura Dern are just some of the Hollywood stars rallying against the —let’s face it — dated stereotype that female actors over a certain age aren’t as big a box office draw as their younger counterparts. And what we’re seeing now in Hollywood is a growing trend of movies that show older women with younger men.
In Babygirl it’s about a relationship with an imbalance of power between a powerful CEO (Kidman) and her intern (Harris Dickinson), something we’ve seen countless times onscreen between older men and younger women. But while this trope is not new to Hollywood, it feels refreshing precisely because it is being told in an unexpected way — with women at the centre of the story.
Kidman has received rave reviews for Babygirl, and having films like the erotic thriller pushes back on the idea that stories about older women, particularly around their sex lives, aren’t interesting to audiences. Naomi Watts once shared in a 2022 interview with Entertainment Weekly that she was told her career would end when she reached 40: “I was told, ‘You better get a lot done because it’s all over at 40 when you become unf***able.’
“And I’m like, ‘What? What does that mean exactly?’ Then you think about it, and you go, ‘Oh, right. When you are no longer reproductive, when those organs are no longer functioning, you are not sexy, so, therefore, you are not hirable.’ That just made me so mad.”
The actor rightly called out the hypocrisy of how women and men are treated in Hollywood, adding: “We don’t talk about a man aging… we don’t talk about his grey hair. In fact, if we do, it’s like, ‘Oh, he gets more handsome, more desirable, more powerful.'”
It is frustrating to see this sentiment still be commonplace, but it is also sadly not surprising. However having more stories centred on older women can help to change that by pushing back against the status quo. It will allow the public to see the subject from a different perspective, and to give older women more recognition in the same way that having more films from marginalised voices has done.
Films like The Substance pushing for that change through progressive storytelling — in fact, the horror movie is largely informed by the damaging stereotype around older women being undesirable.
Read more: How Demi Moore’s real life inspired the most grotesque film of the year
It centres on former Hollywood starlet Elisabeth Sparkle (Moore) who is fired from her job as a celebrity aerobics coach the day she turns 50. Keen to revitalise her fading celebrity status, Elisabeth takes a black market drug known as The Substance to create a younger, more perfect version of herself (Margaret Qualley). The catch? They have to swap every seven days without fail or there are devastating consequences.
Moore’s new film is inspired by her own experience in Hollywood, and certainly feels like it’d ring true for a lot of female actors in the industry who find themselves passed over for younger stars —minus the body horror aspect, one would hope.
The Substance tackles the issue head on in a bold, grotesque and thrilling way that should definitely make Hollywood executives think twice about underestimating the talent and skills of older female actors.
Read more: Demi Moore: There didn’t seem to be a place for me in Hollywood in my 40s (PA Media)
That’s why it’s so thrilling to see movies like Babygirl, Lonely Planet and The Idea of You are getting the buzz they have on the festival circuit and outside of it. Even the newest Bridget Jones movie, Mad About the Boy, sees Renée Zellweger’s beloved character be pursued by Leo Woodall’s charming, younger love interest Roxster.
While Lonely Planet and The Idea of You explores the idea of women finding love in unlikely places and when they don’t even expect it themselves. All these films show that women continue to be desirable as they age, and the more Hollywood shows that narrative the more likely it is that the public will start to find it more commonplace too.
The Idea of You proved a big hit on Prime Video and Dern’s Lonely Planet was perfectly suited for a cosy movie night watch, while the fourth instalment in the Bridget Jones franchise is proving very exciting for fans both new and old.
So what can we take away from all this? Well, women deserve their stories told at any age for one, and female actors certainly don’t become less desirable when they reach a certain milestone. At the very least it seems that Hollywood is finally catching up with the times.
Babygirl premieres in cinemas on Friday, 10 January, The Substance is out now on Mubi, The Lonely Planet is out on Netflix, and The Idea of You is out on Prime Video.
