Think Jamie Lee Curtis in Everything Everywhere All at Once —frumpy, frustrated, but ultimately heroic and complex. Or Olivia Colman in The Lost Daughter , portraying a woman grappling with the secret ambivalence of motherhood. These characters are allowed to be unlikable, selfish, messy, and sexual without punishment.
For decades, Hollywood operated on a cruel arithmetic: a male actor’s value appreciated with his wrinkles, while a female actress’s currency expired the day her first grey hair appeared. The narrative was suffocating. Women over 45 were relegated to three roles: the wispy grandmother, the acerbic neighbor, or the ghostly "wife in the background." Think Jamie Lee Curtis in Everything Everywhere All