As Jamie Lee Curtis said upon winning her Oscar: "I want you to know that it's not about the age. It's about the work." And the work, finally, is reflecting the reality that half the population lives past menopause with dreams, desires, and dynamite left to give.
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In The Lost Daughter (2021), Olivia Colman (47) plays a professor who abandons her family on vacation and steals a child's doll. She is unlikable, selfish, and fascinating. In Women Talking (2022), the women are traumatized, religious, and conflicted. There are no easy answers. As Jamie Lee Curtis said upon winning her
The logic was misogynistic and narrow: cinema was about the male gaze. Mature women were considered "unfuckable," and therefore, unwatchable. When they did appear, they were caricatures: the nagging wife, the overbearing mother-in-law, or the tragic spinster. In the 1980s and 90s, stars like Meryl Streep admitted to struggling to find work after 40. In Death Becomes Her (1992), the satire was almost too real—two women (Goldie Hawn and Meryl Streep) literally going to supernatural extremes to avoid the natural process of aging. Don't call it a comeback
For decades, the unwritten rule in Hollywood was as cruel as it was simple: a woman had an expiration date. Once she crossed the threshold of 40, her phone stopped ringing for leading roles. She was shuffled into the wings, offered the parts of "the mother," "the witch," or "the wise neighbor," while her male counterparts continued to land romantic leads and action heroes well into their 60s. The age gap between leading men and their love interests remained perpetually stuck at 25 for her and 45 for him.
But a seismic shift is underway. We are currently living through the —an era where mature women in entertainment and cinema are not just fighting for scraps; they are headlining blockbusters, winning Oscars, creating their own content, and proving that desire, danger, wisdom, and power have no age limit.
We have moved from Mildred Pierce (where Joan Crawford played a victim) to The White Lotus (where Jennifer Coolidge plays a glorious, messy, wealthy goddess). We have moved from the casting couch to the executive producer chair.