Emma Thompson is Not Impressed With Ageism “It’s Still Complete Shit, Actually”
"It is in a worse state than I have known it."
Emma Thompson is in the latest issue of Radio Times, and she pulled no stops in calling out the acting industry for their ridiculous sexism and ageism.
I don’t think there’s any appreciable improvement and I think that, for women, the question of how they are supposed to look is worse than it was even when I was young. So, no, I am not impressed, at all. I think it’s still completely shit, actually.
The 55-year-old actress also commented on how the types of roles she saw available to her narrowed as she got older.
There was a patch of time when I was in my 30s and just started [being offered] a whole string of roles that basically involved saying to a man, ‘Please don’t go and do that brave thing. Don’t! No, no, no, no, no!’ That’s a trope, the stock woman who says, ‘Don’t do the brave thing.’ I said no to all of them. I’m so proud.
Thompson plays a 77-year-old prostitute in the upcoming film “The Legend of Barney Thomson,” opposite Robert Carlyle, which she says is “a bit ageist… but it’s a wildly comic role and I couldn’t resist.”
Lot of actresses like Helen Mirren, who called the standards “f-king outrageous,” have spoken out about ageism after Maggie Gyllenhaal revealed she was “too old to play the lover of a man who was 55.” Thompson argues that the industry has not improved, but has actually gotten worse.
When I was younger I really did think we were on our way to a better world, and when I look at it now, it is in a worse state than I have known it, particularly for women, and I find that very disturbing and sad. So I get behind as many young female performers as I can, and actually, a lot of the conversations with them are about exactly the fact that we are facing and writing about the same things and nothing has changed, and that some forms of sexism and unpleasantness to women have become more entrenched and indeed more prevalent.
For the full interview, pick up an issue of Radio Times! What do you think about Thompson’s comments?
(via Indiewire)
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