{"id":702948,"date":"2026-05-29T20:53:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T20:53:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/702948\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T20:53:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T20:53:22","slug":"top-films-are-more-likely-to-star-a-chris-than-older-women-its-part-of-a-long-trend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/702948\/","title":{"rendered":"Top films are more likely to star a Chris than older women. It’s part of a long trend"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the award-winning Hacks wrapped this week, its star Jean Smart became one in a small handful of women over 70 to receive a Golden Globe.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The struggle for aging women in Hollywood is something 74-year-old Smart was acutely aware of.<\/p>\n

“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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I’m not sure we’ll ever get past that.”<\/p>\n

Now, a new UK study<\/a> released this week shows just how right Smart may be.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Hacks’s final season featured an age gap romance between Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) and a younger rockstar in a pointed plot.\u00a0 (Supplied: Stan\u00a0)<\/p>\n

The study analysed the 100 highest UK grossing films for 2023, 2024 and 2025.<\/p>\n

Of those films, six featured someone called Chris as the lead actor.<\/p>\n

Just five featured women over 60 as the lead character.<\/p>\n

Top films featuring a female lead actor over the age of 60 in the past three years:<\/p>\n

*According to Age Without Limits\u00a0research, based on British Box Office gross figures.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jennifer Saunders (67) stars in this British drama about a geriatric ward in a small Yorkshire hospital threatened with closure.<\/p>\n

Nia Vardalos (63) returns for this addition to the My Big Fat Greek Wedding franchise.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While considered an ensemble cast, Diane Keaton (79) takes the lead for this sequel that sees the group go on a bookish holiday. It would be Keaton’s third-last film appearance before her 2025 death.<\/p>\n

The first of two body swap films on this list, Demi Moore (63) plays a fading celebrity who turns to a black market drug to create a younger version of herself (played by Margaret Qualley).\u00a0<\/p>\n

The second body swap film flips horror for comedy as Jamie Lee Curtis (67) returns with Lindsay Lohan as a mother and daughter duo.<\/p>\n

Films were \u00a0four times more likely to have a talking animal lead than a female actor over 60, the research also showed.<\/p>\n

Films featuring a Chris as a lead actor in the past three years:<\/p>\n

Chris Pratt stars as Mario in the family flick, a film with a main cast of only one woman: Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 (2023)\"guardians\"Read more <\/a><\/p>\n

Another Chris Pratt feature, this time in the superhero genre. There are a few more women here, though most are alien hybrids.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023)\"dungeons\"Read more <\/a><\/p>\n

Chris Pine takes centre stage in this fantasy adaption of a popular tabletop game.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yet another Chris Pratt feature. This time as lovable curmudgeon Garfield.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Australian Chris Hemsworth gets a mention here. So too does Scarlett Johanasson as the pink transformer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A Christian technically, but Christian Friedel stars as Auschwitz commandant Rudolf H\u00f6ss in this chilling war film.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In Australia, the 2025 charts are similarly lacking for older women.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The ABC dissected 90 of the highest-grossing films from last year and found only Freakier Friday and Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale featured women over 60 in lead roles, according to Box Office Mojo data.<\/p>\n

Secondary characters were more likely to be older women, however, with Wicked: For Good, Avatar: Fire and Ash, Conclave and Nobody 2 all featuring a prominent female character over 60.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Emma Thompson says older women ‘overdue for centre stage’<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

It was a mission supported by star Emma Thompson, who denounced the report’s findings.<\/p>\n

“Women are half the population and we get older. So where are the stories about us?” she said.<\/p>\n

“The older we get, the more interesting we are.<\/p>\n

“I want to see more films centre aging women. We are compelling, relatable and overdue for centre stage.<\/p>\n

“Older women don’t need permission to exist on screen. They already exist in the world, cinema just needs to catch up.”<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Emma Thompson (right) has long played roles that challenge stereotypes, such as in Late Night. (Supplied: Roadshow Films)<\/p>\n

The researchers also\u00a0said when older women were featured on film they were rarely seen as empowered or active.<\/p>\n

Rather, they were depicted as passive or ridiculed for failing to act their age.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Harriet Bailiss, co-lead of the Age Without Limits campaign, said industry’s portrayal of older women “actively” pushed “older people to the margins of society”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“This lack of representation will reinforce the idea that older people matter less as they get older,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“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.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

When menopause becomes the butt of the joke<\/p>\n

If older women are barely seen on-screen, their health concerns are virtually nonexistent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The extent of menopause erasure in film was documented late last year, with a US report <\/a>delving into the past 16 years of top-grossing US films.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Of the 225 films examined and featuring a woman over 40, only 14 mentioned menopause, mostly as a comedic punchline.<\/p>\n

Eleven of those came out between 2009 and 2016.<\/p>\n

Sex and the City 2 was the only film that made it a central plot point.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Four<\/p>\n

Kim Cattrall’s Samantha openly discusses menopause and a full-range of symptoms in the 2010 film.\u00a0 (Supplied: New Line Productions)<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That is despite it affecting roughly half of humanity.<\/p>\n

And as the study highlighted, film and TV were how about 14 per cent of the 750 surveyed first encountered the concept of menopause.<\/p>\n

\"Naomi<\/p>\n

Naomi Watts has since formed her own menopause wellness brand.\u00a0 (REUTERS\/Sarah Meyssonnier)<\/p>\n

On the small screen, menopause is slowly being shown as more than just hot flashes.<\/p>\n

Australian Naomi Watts made headlines<\/a> by openly discussing the shame, panic and loneliness she felt experiencing menopause.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Her advocacy eventually led to starring in a grounded scene in 2025 rom-com series Too Much.<\/p>\n

Watts told The New York Times<\/a> it was a welcome change from past portrayals.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“They were just comical or acting crazy, slamming doors, yelling,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“While it was funny, it felt very one-dimensional.”It’s not just older women<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the desire for better on-screen representation isn’t limited to older women.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last year, 100 of the top-grossing US films were analysed for women’s and girls’ lead roles.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There were just 39, according to USC Annenberg research<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The total was a backslide from 2024’s 55, though a significant increase from 2007’s 20.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The research’s lead Stacy Smith said the inclusion wasn’t political but “about choices made in executive suites and the perceived value of these films”.<\/p>\n

It also paints bare just how far the industry has to go.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“In 2024, the industry showed that it could be inclusive of women’s stories,” Dr Smith said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“2025 shows us that it’s not a question of being able to be inclusive, it’s about a willingness to do so.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the award-winning Hacks wrapped this week, its star Jean Smart became one in a small handful of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":702949,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[64,63,447,134,1689,361,1973,13469,36150,12632,66756],"class_list":["post-702948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-film","tag-film-industry","tag-hollywood","tag-older-people","tag-older-women","tag-women","tag-women-in-film"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=702948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/702949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=702948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=702948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=702948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}