The Death of a (Woman's) Career

After watching his filmography over the years, one thing is for certain: Johnny Depp likes his women young. To be specific, at least 11 years younger than himself. In only one of his movies has he had a love interest be less than 5 years younger than himself, and once the age gap between him and the leading lady spanned a whopping 33 years. It's become an obvious trend that in Hollywood, the leading men age while their love interests don't. The same trend can be found in films starring actors like Denzel Washington, George Clooney, Richard Gere, and Tom Cruise (to name a few).

Author Whittington-Walsh (2013) comments on this phenomenon, saying "Growing old, apparently the biggest social taboo for any female, means the death of a career, causing some celebrities to visit plastic surgeons and request that they be transformed into themselves" (p. 182). The pressure to stay young that is placed on women (celebrities in particular), while recognized as being unfair and unattainable, is still the standard. Comedian and actress Amy Schumer shared her thoughts on the subject by writing and starring in a satirical video on Comedy Central titled "Last F*ckable Day". In the video, Schumer runs into a group of actresses who are celebrating one of their own's 'last f**kable day'- that is, the last day that the media considers them attractive. In the video Tina Fey (one of the actresses Schumer stumbles upon) explains the idea of the 'last f*kable day' to Schumer, commenting on how Sally Field was Tom Hank's love interest in Punchline, and then 5 years later was playing his mother in Forrest Gump. 

This idea of women aging faster than men is not unheard of- scholarship on the subject has been written. Lincoln and Allen (2004) found that research conducted by the Screen Actors Guild suggests a "double jeopardy effect" for female actors who experience aging differently from male actors throughout their careers. Although as of 2000, 43% of Americans are over the age of 40 (US, Bureau of the Census, 2000), women over age 40 received only 24% of all female roles cast in television and film, while men over age 40 received 37% of all male roles. The Screen Actors Guild (2002) also noted that obtaining roles in feature films posed an even greater challenge for female actors over the age of 40. However, this gendered age gap in films continues today, as shown by the charts above. It begs the question, when will the playing field between men and women finally be even?

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