Source: Radio New Zealand (world)
A talking animal is four times more likely than a 60+ woman to be a main character.
This year, Jean Smart, star of the award-winning TV show Hacks, became one of a small handful of women over 70 to receive a Golden Globe. The struggle for ageing women in Hollywood is something the 74-year-old is acutely aware of.
“The average age difference between a husband and a wife in the United States is a little hair over two years, and on the screen, it’s 20,” she told press, as she accepted her leading actress win in January. “I’m not sure we’ll ever get past that.”
A new UK study released this week shows just how right Smart may be. Analysing the 100 highest UK-grossing films for 2023, 2024 and 2025, researchers found 6 featured someone called Chris as the lead, while just 5 featured women over 60.
Hacks’s final season featured an age gap romance between Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) and a younger rockstar.
Top films featuring a female lead actor over 60 in the past three years:
*According to Age Without Limits research, based on British Box Office gross figures.
• My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 (2023)
• Book Club: The Next Chapter (2023)
• The Substance (2024)
• Freakier Friday (2025)
Films featuring a ‘Chris’ as a lead actor in the past three years:
• The Super Mario Bros Movie (2023)
• Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 (2023)
• Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023)
• The Garfield Movie (2024)
• Transformers One (2024)
• The Zone of Interest (2024)
Emma Thompson says older women are ‘overdue for centre stage’
Age Without Limits, led by the UK’s Centre for Ageing Better, released the study in a push for better on-screen representation in film.
It was a mission supported by star Emma Thompson, who denounced the report’s findings.
“Women are half the population and we get older. So where are the stories about us?” she said.
“The older we get, the more interesting we are.
“I want to see more films centre aging women. We are compelling, relatable and overdue for centre stage.
“Older women don’t need permission to exist on screen. They already exist in the world, cinema just needs to catch up.”
Emma Thompson (right) has long played roles that challenge stereotypes, such as in Late Night.
The researchers also said that when older women were featured on film, they were rarely seen as empowered or active.
Rather, they were depicted as passive or ridiculed for failing to act their age.
Harriet Bailiss, co-lead of the Age Without Limits campaign, said the industry’s portrayal of older women “actively” pushed “older people to the margins of society”.
“This lack of representation will reinforce the idea that older people matter less as they get older,” she said.
“No wonder so many women talk about feeling invisible as they get older when they don’t see themselves reflected back in popular culture or advertising.”
When menopause becomes the butt of the joke
If older women are barely seen on-screen, their health concerns are virtually nonexistent.
The extent of menopause erasure in film was documented late last year, with a US report delving into the past 16 years of top-grossing US films.
Of the 225 films examined and featuring a woman over 40, only 14 mentioned menopause, mostly as a comedic punchline. Eleven of those came out between 2009 and 2016.
Kim Cattrall’s Samantha openly discusses menopause symptoms in the 2010 film Sex and The City 2.
New Line Productions
Sex and the City 2 was the only film that made it a central plot point.
Other menopause depictions were rarely more than the butt of a joke, the cause for the death of sex appeal or as a proxy for a woman’s rage, the Geena Davis Institute study said.
That is despite it affecting roughly half of humanity.
And as the study highlighted, film and TV were how about 14 percent of the 750 surveyed first encountered the concept of menopause.
Naomi Watts has since formed her own menopause wellness brand.
On the small screen, menopause is slowly being shown as more than just hot flashes.
Australian actor Naomi Watts made headlines by openly discussing the shame, panic and loneliness she felt experiencing menopause. Her advocacy eventually led to starring in a grounded scene in the 2025 rom-com series Too Much.
Watts told The New York Times it was a welcome change from past portrayals.
“They were just comical or acting crazy, slamming doors, yelling,” she said.
“While it was funny, it felt very one-dimensional.”
It’s not just older women
Unfortunately, the desire for better on-screen representation isn’t limited to older women.
Last year, 100 of the top-grossing US films were analysed for women’s and girls’ lead roles. There were just 39, according to USC Annenberg research.
The total was a backslide from 2024’s 55, though a significant increase from 2007’s 20.
The inclusion wasn’t political but “about choices made in executive suites and the perceived value of these films”, says lead researcher Stacy Smith.
It also paints bare just how far the industry has to go.
“In 2024, the industry showed that it could be inclusive of women’s stories.
“2025 shows us that it’s not a question of being able to be inclusive, it’s about a willingness to do so.”
Get weekly Life highlights
Our editors pick the best of food, arts, culture and lifestyle. Delivered straight to your inbox every Saturday.
Sign up for the Life newsletter now
Moss & Freud: When an elderly painter and supermodel met
Ellie Bamber and Derek Jacobi play Kate Moss and Lucian Freud, who formed an unlikely friendship when he painted her portrait in 2002.
James Bond buzz: who will continue the 007 legacy?
The auditions for the next James Bond have started, firing up the speculation as to who will fill Daniel Craig’s tux and togs.
The Backrooms: how a teenager’s creepy YouTube series became the year’s most anticipated horror
The horror genre has become one of the most significant areas of overlap between internet creator culture and Hollywood.
Docuseries featuring Kaitaia choir wins two awards at US festival
Filmmaker Leanne Pooley’s Choir Games was praised for its “moving depiction of the uplifting and healing power of music”.