Boys Town - Or How the Feature Film Industry Conspires to Exclude Older Women
Rosanna Arquette was driven to make her film, which was screened in 2002 as one of the out-of-competition films at Cannes, because she was struck by three-times Oscar nominated Debra Winger’s decision to leave the profession in her late 30’s. The documentary is about the trials and tribulations of actresses in Hollywood who have reached “that certain age”, and in the course of her search she talked to 34 fellow film actresses about their experiences of balancing their lives with the demands of Hollywood. Interviewees included Laura Dern, Jane Fonda, Whoopi Goldberg, Melanie Griffith, Daryl Hannah, Holly Hunter, Julia Ormond, Gwyneth Paltrow, Charlotte Rampling, Vanessa Redgrave, Sharon Stone and Debra Winger herself.
How much of a problem is there? Research commissioned by Equity’s Women’s Committee in 1996 found that there were significant inequalities between men and women. Across the British entertainment industry (film, television and theatre) men had more lead and support roles than women at a ratio of 9:7, average fees for leading women were 34% less than for leading men and women’s average annual income was 15% less than men’s.
MEN ON TOP
A
2005 survey of Equity members by the industry-training organisation
Skillset revealed that little has changed. Men (8 per cent) were more
likely than women (4 per cent) to have earned £30,000 or more in the
past year. At the other end of the scale, women (45 per cent) were more
likely than men (40 per cent) to have earned less that £6,000 from work
in the performance industry during the past year.
In Rosanna
Arquette’s film the actresses explore issues of ageing, plastic
surgery, raising children and intimacy with men — or the lack thereof —
with bracing candour.
All had their own personal horror stories about insensitive producers and casting directors who tend to think of over-40 (and sometimes over-30) actresses as being suitable only for mother, “other woman,” and “hero’s girlfriend” roles — when they bother to cast these actresses at all.
Many of the comments made in the film will be familiar to actresses in the UK and elsewhere. Samantha Mathis said: “The one little part out there that comes along once a year that I’m really excited about doing, there’s 30 other women and we’re all trying to get that one part.”
BOTOX BEAUTY?
Whoopi Goldberg spoke of the pressure on actresses to have cosmetic surgery — pressure that she had resisted. “This is Hollywood and this is a different world and the women here cut their faces and cut their bodies.” And Tracey Ulman joked about the number of actresses who could hardly talk for the amount of botox pumped into their lips. There was plenty of evidence of that in the film where most actresses were over 40 but few looked it.
Movie critic Roger Ebert added that change has to begin with film distribution. “There has to be an end to the multiplexes being block booked with movies for teenage boys.”
But
Holly Hunter offered a more positive note: “It feels new for women to
be unapologetically passionate about their careers. I don’t think that
has been the case for very long. Actresses who are good have probably
never been better than after they are 40.”
Most of the actresses did
appear to be relatively happy with the choices they have made and few
expressed any desire, if they had their time over again, to change very
much.
WHAT FONDA'S FOND OF
In one of the most moving moments of the film Jane Fonda talks about what she loves about her craft. “One thing I miss is when it does work; and it hasn’t been that many times out of 49 films, maybe eight times that I’ve been in a situation when you step into the light, you hit your first mark and all of the channels are open, and it happens, and it’s like a plane taking off. You taxi and you take off and you become.” Fonda left acting in 1990 in favour of a home life with her then husband Ted Turner, but, like Debra Winger, has returned to acting since the film was made.
The thrust of Rosanna Arquette’s film was not necessarily the right basis for an argument about the lack of enough decent parts for older actresses here in the UK, but it allowed us to have a much needed debate, and a debate in front of key industry figures.
The discussion served to point up that while there are undoubtedly inequalities in the British film and television industry, Britain is not Hollywood. It was lead by distinguished journalist Kaye Adams with a panel consisting of director David Yates, actress Rula Lenska casting director Michelle Gish and writer Lizzie Mickery.
STOP THE CLOCK?
Many of the actresses present empathised with the Holly Hunter’s point that once you hit 40 you suddenly feel you understand what life is all about and you want to use that in your work. You have more to offer than just a pretty face, but you turn round and there are no parts out there for you. Is it any wonder the group of successful women in Arquette’s film had turned to plastic surgery in a vain attempt to stop the clock and hang on to their career? I do not want to see that happening here.
Rula Lenska bravely admitted her television career had been bleak for a decade or more and that when she flirted briefly with American TV there was a clause in her contract that gave TV executives the right to decide when she would need to have cosmetic surgery. She walked away.
I do not see the problem quite the same light here. I believe many writers like Lynda le Plante and Lizzie Mickery do write good, strong, modern, pivotal female characters — but there are not enough supporting and minor roles in that vein for older women to play. The majority of our experienced, middle-range members no longer have a career, however much they worked when they were young.
REAL NATIONAL TREASURES
As Equity member Jane Lowe told me, “Here in the UK we treasure our older stars — Julie Walters, Brenda Blethyn, Helen Mirren, Sue Johnston etc — who all seem to work a great deal and play real people and not just grannies. My beef is about those of us who are not stars and could so easily play the supporting roles given to men.”
Interestingly, I wrote letter after letter to our high-profile members inviting them to attend the screening but there was only a handful of well-known performers present on the night. The others were, it would seem, either working or catching up with family responsibilities.
We must not, however, see this as only a Hollywood or UK problem. There are many murmurings in Europe about gender issues, and I do not mean just with regard to new Europe emerging from undemocratic dictatorships. Scandinavian countries like Norway and Sweden, where there are statutory rights to equal representation, are worried about the growing lack of job opportunities for ageing female performers as well as equal pay issues when they are working. So much so that a working party has been set up through the International Federation of Actors to consider such concerns and I am pleased to be representing Equity in this Forum.
That aside, the debate here has started and the problem identified. During the discussion at BAFTA Michelle Gish bemoaned the fact that she was still occasionally asked: ‘who is the latest young thing?’ “It is very dreary,” she said. “In Europe they cherish their older women — particularly in France.”
IN THE PRIME OF LIFE
Rula Lenska agreed: “In Europe, older women in whose faces you can see life and passion are revered. That doesn’t seem to happen here or in America. When I was younger I was told that I would be in my prime in my middle years. Well, I am now well into my middle years and while I get offered good work in theatre, there is not a sniff of television, let alone film.”
The meeting debated what seemed to be the invisibility of women’s sexuality after they pass a certain age. Lizzie Mickery observed: “There seems to be some thought that women’s sexuality shuts off after 40. I read an interview with Francesca Annis and the first two paragraphs were asking how she managed to keep a man 19 years younger than her.” In the same vein, actress Diana Brooks commented on the beauty of the actresses in Rosanna Arquette’s film. “Older women are more fortunate in the UK. You may not be allowed to be sexy but you are allowed to be an old bag.”
The director David Yates summed it up best for me, when he talked of “a whole range of experience not reflected on our screens despite powerful women in key positions” and called for a collective response from the industry for change. In order to be part of that revolution I believe Equity must equip itself with all the facts, by initiating a thorough research into portrayal. If we do not, this female ageism disease will hit male performers next — if it hasn’t done so already.
Reprinted by kind permission of Equity and Jean Rogers
© Equity and Jean Rogers