Tale of the Aging Actress

Gif Courtesy of BuzzFeed

     Early 2000's Rom-Com queen actress Kate Hudson is in a new movie, Deepwater Horizon. The 37-year-old actress is playing "the wife" of an oil rig worker in the Gulf of Mexico. Based on a true story, the rig exploded and spilled oil all over the gulf in 2010. Hudson plays Mark Walhberg's wife, and it means she is sitting around being worried, a la Helen Hunt in Cast Away or Kathleen Quinlan in Apollo 13. Does this mean now that she is under 40, Hudson can't hope for any more great and juicy roles? This is quite absurd. Comedienne (again a sexist term) Amy Schumer's "Last F**ckable Day" sketch explored and poked fun of the moment when a women has to begin wearing long sweaters and taking roles like "The mom." Schumer brilliantly remarks on this double standard as Tina Fey and Julia Louis-Dreyfus shipping Patricia Arquette (48) off on this journey.

     I also remote flipped to the Jennifer Garner-led movie Miracles from Heaven. It was sad, but at least it was a role for a woman in her 40's. Sadly, it was a bit contrived, as Garner played another trope, a mother of a terminally sick child fighting for medical care. This was also a true story.

     At the end of the day, how do we fix Hollywood? Who says that late 30's or late 40's is too late to have a rich, fleshed-out female character? How do we get more women on screen as more than a wife, a mom, a daughter, or bimbo? This is not an easy fix...