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.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pLHLnpmirJOdxm%2BvzqZmbWpobH15e8yanqChlZS0urjLnqWhmZGhrHSDvrCYrJekpLmlq9KhnJivkaistbvOmKalnI%2BpvKC8y5qwmKyYmqy4tcWelpqXZWp6urHAq2SopJRk