All I know is that first you’ve got to get mad. You’ve got to say, ‘I’m a human being, God damn it! My life has value!’ So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell, ‘I’M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!’ – Network
Women are people too, or so I’ve heard. We are more than just product, more than just boner fodder, more than just support networks to promote the smarter, stronger males. You would never know that, of course, by the way Hollywood hums along as though nothing is wrong – everybody’s still getting rich so what’s the problem? The problem is that women have become decoration, safety nets, where sexual confidence is confused with strength in characters. Strong women means sexually confident women. But these women, when you really dissect who and what they are, exist merely to inspire, seduce, make-better their male counterparts, for whom a whole spectrum of the human experience is allowed. We can’t keep our faces from aging (and when we do we become even more frightening). We can’t buy our youth back (we can try – to the tune of billions of dollars per year). We can’t stop the full spectrum of the male gaze from preferring the fresher, younger among us. The dick wants what it wants.
And so it is with this that Kristin Scott Thomas finally got the message and decided to stop badgering the industry and the public – she just decided to hang it up, like so many do, so many who just say nothing but drift around at parties looking sort of familiar, almost famous but yet too old. There are the exceptions – Sandra Bullock in Gravity. What a brave choice by Cuaron to defy the studios and have Bullock play a scientist fighting her way back to earth. Judi Dench, Helen Mirren, Meryl Streep, Maggie Smith – the mostly British invasion (save Streep) are given more opportunities to age. In the UK they extend sexuality to the old among us. But in the US, if you want to work on Hollywood films, forget it. This article posted on Women and Hollywood:
“I just suddenly thought, I cannot cope with another film,” she told The Guardian. “I realised I’ve done the things I know how to do so many times in different languages, and I just suddenly thought, I can’t do it any more. I’m bored by it. So I’m stopping.”
Unsurprisingly, Scott Thomas is frustrated by the narrow spectrum of roles she is offered as an “aging actress.” She doesn’t want to play the “sad middle-aged woman” anymore: “[I’m] asked to do the same things over and over, because people know you can do that, so they want you to do that. But I just don’t want to pretend to be unhappy anymore — and it is mostly unhappy.”
She adds, “I’m often asked to do something because I’m going to be a sort of weight to their otherwise flimsy production. They need me for production purposes, basically. So they give me a little role in something where they know I’m going to be able to turn up, know what to do, cry in the right place. I shouldn’t bite the hand that feeds, but I keep doing these things for other people, and last year I just decided life’s too short. I don’t want to do it anymore.”
There might be a small surfeit of roles for elderly actresses like Maggie Smith and Judi Dench (who never seem to stop working, thank goodness), but the film industry has little need for women in their fifties, except to play moms. Scott Thomas notes, “I’m sort of, as the French would say, ‘stuck between two chairs’, because I’m no longer 40 and sort of a seductress, and I’m not yet a granny.”
A great illustration of her professional plight is The Invisible Woman, the 2013 film directed by and starring Ralph Fiennes about Charles Dickens’ much younger mistress. Back in 1996, the 53-year-old Scott Thomas and the 51-year-old Fiennes played lovers in The English Patient. In The Invisible Woman, Scott Thomas played the motherof Fiennes’ love interest, played by 30-year-old Felicity Jones.
We women have been conditioned to value youth over all things because somewhere along the way, after the 1970s and some of the 1980s, women stopped bitching in large numbers about it. Why does Hillary Clinton not care about such things? Because she’s an old school feminist. She was raised by voices that continually challenged the status quo. She was a young women when Ellen Burstyn, Jane Fonda, Shelly Duvall, Sissy Spacek, Glenda Jackson, Katharine Hepburn were all monstrous forces in Hollywood. But then something happened. Blockbusters happened. Television happened. Julia Roberts happened. Things changed for women in film. If you weren’t a youthful tsunami like Roberts, who appealed to both men and women, you were not likely to control the box office and thus, not likely to headline movies. The bottom line dictated that all films, animated or live action, make more money when they star men and boys because men and boys are the ticket buyers.
Jennifer Lawrence follows in Roberts’ footsteps. She is exactly the kind of female Hollywood wants and needs. She was 22 in Silver Linings Playbook – where the character in the book was much older. She’s 23 in American Hustle where the real character she played was closer to 50. And suicidal. How can we expect anyone to understand that women have value as they age if we pretend that all of that content one gains with age can be magically inserted into the body of a 22 year-old? It can’t. The lines on our faces are from the expressions and experiences we’ve had and collected over time. They represent the glorious lives we’ve lived. Why should that be something to be erased continually? Sure, we can’t be boner fodder anymore but what else could we be? We’re on the brink of perhaps having the first female president – that’s something we could be. Frozen offers us Disney princesses who save themselves, one of whom doesn’t need a prince at all to define her character. We can be astronauts, thanks to Gravity. We can be imperfect like Melissa McCarthy and bring two films past the $100 million mark. Hollywood, give us a chance to be real people, not just fluffers for your aging peens. I promise you won’t regret it. We do have stuff to actually, you know, say?
Thing is, it isn’t just the male gaze that drives dollars towards young women. These young actresses are bringing in hoards of young women who follow Lawrence because of Hunger Games and Kristen Stewart because of Twilight. That’s fantastic. Perhaps this will eventually launch a new wave of actresses who control the box office and therefore regain their footing in Hollywood. But something tells me that won’t be the case. Still, here’s hoping these young actresses have room to grow, and age, and not be discarded for the younger ones, always the younger and younger ones, coming down the pike.
Worse, the films this year that displayed strong older females – Saving Mr. Banks, The Butler and August: Osage County got the film snobbery treatment from the critics groups and that meant they weren’t herded into the pen by the cool kids and that meant they were mostly shut out of the Oscar race. What remained were films that fit more comfortably into the status quo, all save two – Philomena and Gravity. In all except those two, the films are mostly about what happens to the central male figure. I give a major pass to some of them – like 12 Years, which fits into the film the plight of several key females and is, in its own way, much more about women as victims than it is about the men. Nebraska, which has June Squibb, and The Wolf of Wall Street which, at least, lampoons the very paradigm we’re talking about. Women tend to appreciate that movie more than men because men are used to being coddled by Hollywood films. Women get to point at it and say, yep.
As for Ms. Kristin Scott Thomas, I cannot say I blame her. Who would want to go around struggling just for a small part in some movie where she’s going to be ignored anyway? There is a whole life to be lived out there. Death is never too far off for any of us, unfortunately. I hope she decides to write, produce and direct.
Whenever I meet actresses at festivals or parties I always tell them the same thing. Start making movies — and not movies about relationships. We have stories to tell that don’t involve those fabulous dudes we are too often distracted by. We are more than just mothers, girlfriends, wives, grandmothers, mistresses. We are teachers, senators, activists, doctors, superheroes, bosses, artists, and yeah, we will one day be presidents. Hollywood needs to catch up is all.
It’s hard to come by educated people about this subject, however,
you seem like you know what you’re talking about! Thanks
She should have gotten more attention in the awards for Only God Forgives, but then again OGF might be the least Academy-friendly movie in the entire history of film, so she would never have a chance anyway.
http://youtu.be/BX7PckDUMA4
the final scene in I’ve Loved You So Long
OMG! I agree… her performance in I’ve Loved You So Long was the best female performance that year!!! It was a travesty that it wasn’t even nominated.
Here is one smart lady: Robin Wright takes the director’s chair
Just saw this in the NYT:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/09/arts/television/robin-wright-putting-on-a-directors-cap.html?WT.mc_id=NYT-E-I-NYT-E-AT-0205-L18&WT.mc_ev=click&nl=el&_r=0
I’m going to be persnickety here and point out that, in The Invisible Woman, as well as in real life, Ellen Ternan was a young woman (late teens/early 20s IIRC) when she first became involved w/Dickens, so it’s perfectly reasonable to have her played by a younger actress; if anything, Felicity Jones is, at 30, older than her character is at the beginning, so KST playing her mother is entirely appropriate, in this particular case. I do agree, of course, that we need a much better range of roles for women of all ages (because automatically stuffing young actresses into the “sexpot” slot doesn’t do justice to the far more complicated reality with which young women live; it’s not all roses just because you’re young and cute in either Hollywood or the real world), and I agree with Steve that it’ll probably come from women working together as producers, directors, writers, and especially financiers (Megan Ellison to the white courtesy phone…).
Just for the fun of it, let me play the devil’s advocate. Artists like KST, Bisset, and Thompson need to stop waiting for the roles and projects to come to them and go after them, themselves, instead. We know there are women writers and directors out there – every once in awhile one of them gets loose and turns up in public. There are funding mechanisms now outside of the studio system and venues to show the work not located in a shopping mall.
I’m sure Thompson isn’t interested in playing the Hollywood game again anytime soon, either. Julie Christie appears once every so often, so you know she’d like to work more. Alfre Woodard could use a good lead role, too. C’mon girls, call Julie Taymor, Campion and Polley and do something. Selma H has produced before. Jolie can direct and must have a pocketful of cash from Disney.
Start with a Netflix or HBO thing. Send a gang to the library to find something YOU would want to watch if it were transferred to another medium.
Don’t wait for the big guys to come to you because they’re never gonna. If you love acting as much as we love watching you, you won’t just walk away.
Well . . . not to be a spoiler . . . but there aren’t very many interesting “happy” characters to play (male or female) period.
Most every actor I know would rather play am interesting villain than a goody-two-shoes.
I wish to god AMPAS had nominated her for “Only God Forgives”. But the film wasn’t well received, although she was fantastic in it.
If it had been up to me, she’d have been in the final five supporting actresses.
Sasha, when you say “the films displayed strong older females” are you talking about the actresses or the characters? I’ll give you actresses but not Oprah’s character. Her character was generally weak until she kicked the booze. But I agree with Paddy, even though I only saw The Butler. It was a bit of shit.
If Only God Forgives was given a bit more attention and released later in the year than maaaaybe Thomas would’ve received a bit more notice. I’m squarely on the fence about it but I’ll say with complete confidence it’s a heavy misfire. I enjoyed the feverish lighting and framing, the fist fight and a bit of the music, along with Thomas. But there was a plethora of great films and great performances this year. Thomas just wasn’t in the top 5.
Simone: To me, the worst movie experience of 2013 was having to sit through Only God Forgives, I can only assume most other people felt the same way. So maybe she was ignored because the movie sucked?
Having said that, she was the only redeemable thing about it.
(As a matter of fact, she WAS however nominated for best supporting actress at the Danish equivalent to the Oscars, the Bodil, for her part in Refn’s failure, the film’s lone nomination)
I saw Kristen Scott Thomas in ‘Only God Forgives’ with Ryan Gosling. She was in role that I’ve never, ever seen her in before. She was brilliant in being a cold-hearted, psychopath, sexy she-beast mother. Why she was ignored this awards season is beyond me.
And I get that sometimes movies with female leads become big hits, but producers pretty much always think that that’s not happening. It’s a fluke if it does. Both Ryan Stone and Ellen Ripley would’ve been men if the directors would not have fought the money men.
So, money women like Kathleen Kennedy – show them the way.
Tero: I think you are right. The problem is not so much men like Scorsese not caring about the female perspective (you shouldn’t force an artist to alter his perspective out of some respect for the demands of political correctness), but rather that the whole Hollywood system should learn to accommodate that perspective by including female writers to the forefront of their production processes. In that sense, yes, the indie cinema of America is a good place to find inspiration with absolutely vital voices like Debra Granik, Nicole Holofcener, Lisa Cholodenko, and the great Kelly Reichardt (to name a few).
“I also firmly believe that in 2008/2009 she should have won the Best Actress Oscar for I’ve loved you so long. Her nuanced, subtle, heartbreakingly beautiful performance stayed with me and I consider it her best work to date.”
I support you all the way on that one, Phantom (our other disagreements on the best actress race notwithstanding!;))
Well, Kristin Scott Thomas has a GREAT role in the Oscar-friendly Weinstein-pic SUITE FRANCAISE, so let’s just hope that she’ll get the kind of recognition she deserves and then hopefully she will change her mind because her early retirement would be a big loss for the film industry.
I LOVED her in Four Wedding and a Funeral, The English Patient, The Horse Whisperer, Gosford Park, Keeping Mum (very underrated dark comedy IMO), Nowhere Boy, Sarah’s Key, Only God Forgives and The Invisible Woman…I also firmly believe that in 2008/2009 she should have won the Best Actress Oscar for I’ve loved you so long. Her nuanced, subtle, heartbreakingly beautiful performance stayed with me and I consider it her best work to date.
I think Scorsese had admitted in interviews that he doesn’t understand women or something similar, so he makes pictures with men in key roles. Good to be honest.
Hollywood producers are only to blame. They need to give work for women writers and directors. The independent scene in America does pretty well here.
A female just won Best Director in Finland (for our little movie awards) and this same woman grabbed her fifth trophy already. Though, in that movie (Concrete Night, also won Best Picture) the leads are male, but at least you’ll have some underage frontal nudity. What is it with this sexualization of 15-year old boys? 😀
This might be a reason why a great female writer and director like Jane Campion, who struggles to make better films than her early ones, would turn to TV production, so that she could create some interesting, independent woman roles that would be appreciated. I was really glad that Elizabeth Moss won for “Top of the Lake” at the Globes, though everyone in the room might have been left cold, because no one actually saw how good she was, and how good Jane Campion still is, and how exciting that some actress won an award not just playing man’s possession (sorry Amy Adams).
I would agree with Mac. Scorsese has demonstrated a curious lack of interest in female characters/perspectives over the past 40 years. How that makes him Sasha’s perennial favorite is a little baffling. But I guess it’s nice to see that Sasha (in some instances) can separate her love of the medium from her politics.
I would just like to add that I personally don’t see anything overtly problematic in Scorsese’s focus. He’s an artist, which means he’s perfectly entitled to do whatever he wants to do. He shouldn’t bow to anyone’s demands, but his own (not even the Bechdel Test).
But the crux of the matter (in lieu of this discussion) is a lack of meaty female characters in his films. That’s a fact.
I’ve really admired the way KST has been able to work in England and France and the U.S in recent years turning in some of the more interesting performances – John Lennon’s Aunt in ‘Nowhere Boy’, the woman trying to get her life back in ‘I’ve loved you so long’ – an exquisite essay on grief and love and loss. Her comic turn in ‘Easy Virtue’, an adulterer in ‘Leaving’ and the writer in ‘Sarah’s key’ – a great range of roles and stories. I would say she is one of the most successful 50 something actress. If she’s giving up….
I tend to seek out female focused stories in movies anyway, but have really loved these titles in the last year. Quartet, Amour, Rust and Bone, Higher Ground (Vera Farmiga’s directorial debut), Cate Shortland’s ‘Lore’ ;other Australian features ‘Mental’ with Toni Collette, ‘Goddess’. Holofcenrer’s Enough Said’. And of course the current ones ‘August’, ‘Saving Mr Banks’, ‘Philomena’.
I wish Alfonso Cuaron had been braver and cast a not so well known face in ‘Gravity’, but i get that the money would not have been there. Yes, i would love more Jessica Chastain, Amy Adams, Laura Linney led projects. There’s a wonderful generation of women like Sarah Polley and Zoe Kazan who write, act and direct. More please. Kristin’s plea may be heard – who knows?
Scorsese took on ALICE DOESN’T LIVE HERE ANYMORE because of Ellen Burstyn. She was suddenly hot after THE EXORCIST and was given the opportunity to choose her own project and director. She chose Marty. He was just starting out and it was a boon for his career. I’m sure if he had his druthers, he’d have made another crime film with DeNiro and Keitel (who played Alice’s abusive boyfriend).
Did people read the interview? I mean, actually read it, you know past the first two paragraphs … She didn’t say she was going to stop acting in films. She said she didn’t want to do things she didn’t really believe in anymore and that she was going to be much pickier about work.
Oh God, Scorsese isn’t exempt from this discussion. He’s just as guilty as his peers for ignoring older women. Heck, actresses in his films are typically the girlfriend, wife, arm candy, moll. Sure, there might be one juicy part for the supporting hot young actress to dig into, but it’s the guys that are featured. How many of his films pass this site’s criteria for the Bechdel Test?
What? “He did Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore 40 years ago and it had a female protagonist, so that makes him above it all.” The early Seventies! His current films don’t even have women that were born back then. “20 years ago Scorsese submitted The Age of Innocence.” Ah, his last effort containing major speaking parts (plural) for the actresses involved (Pfeiffer, Ryder, and arguably Woodard).
He’s a legend, but in nearly 50 years in the business, Scorsese has had about as much contempt for women as the rest of Hollywood.
Admirable stance. She was fantastic in ONLY GOD FORGIVES last year, and I liked her in IN THE HOUSE too, but I suppose that one is one of the roles she’s decrying. I don’t know how the business work, but would actresses like her be willing to work with first-time filmmakers who I’m sure would be delighted to have her and write wonderful original stuff for someone like her, or is she waiting for Paul Thomas Anderson to make her the lead of his next film? Depends on what you are willing to take too.
I would say Hollywood needs to make more female-centric films, but I also think more female directors need to be given a chance. There’s no reason, for example, why a female director with great promise couldn’t have been tasked with helming August: Osage County. There was no reason why they had to employ the actual male director whose limited experience and faculties undercut a strong ensemble. That’s not to say that being a man is the reason why his direction was less than impressive, but one wonders how many more interesting films told from the female perspective could be made if the directors actually shared the female perspective.
Speaking of which, anyone heard about this:
http://www.vanityfair.com/vf-hollywood/jennifer-lawrence-david-o-russell-miracle-mop
I’m sorry I must have missed something; I didn’t read the Invisible Woman.
A great illustration of her professional plight is The Invisible Woman, the 2013 film directed by and starring Ralph Fiennes about Charles Dickens’ much younger mistress. Back in 1996, the 53-year-old Scott Thomas and the 51-year-old Fiennes played lovers in The English Patient. In The Invisible Woman, Scott Thomas played the motherof Fiennes’ love interest, played by 30-year-old Felicity Jones.
^^ In the Dickens story does Dickens romance a younger woman or not? So if he romances a younger woman – and he’s an older man – what’s the problem?
If you’re middle aged, 53 yo, you’re middle aged. Does she want to play a younger woman?
Did I miss something?
Anywho — I always say that women like Kristin Scott Thomas (Does anyone remember her first movie role with PRINCE – in under the Cherry Moon? when she was about 19?) should start optioning novels. The women who get the roles, like Streep, have good management, and I’m sure are always on the lookout for a play or novel; even a TV show!
When I saw Jacq. Bissette at the GG, I was aghast at how she had kept her beauty….and she was complaining about not getting roles or fighting Hollywood, or something along those lines. But there she is — on TELEVISISION and winning awards.
Women in Hollywood need to get with women writers of novels and plays for good material.
Yet another reason why Kristin Scott Thomas is one of the greats.
Though I’ll say this: the reason Saving Mr. Banks, The Butler and August: Osage County weren’t embraced to the same extent as plenty more male-dominated films were is because they’re all a bit shit.