Hugh Laurie plays Dr House in the television series of the same name and one of his favourite dialogues is, “everybody lies” and by that he means every patient lies, but when I look at the folks in my pasture of filmdom I can say that with equal certainty. Everybody lies, well, almost everybody.
I had a very naughty pastime in my years as an assistant. When the crew had to go abroad, the passports of all the actors and actresses would arrive at the office for Visa formalities and I would get a great kick out of peeking into the “real age” of the so-called actors and laughing at the 22-year-old who was actually 28 years old.
What makes an actor lie about his or her age? (The chances of “her” being far brighter than the “his”) Could it be that most of the actresses here are perceived as glamour dolls and to be a glamour doll one has to be young? Can’t argue that. Have you noticed that as the hero gets older his heroine gets younger? Aamir Khan and Juhi came into this place together, but I don’t see Aamir doing a film with her. Now, he prefers Asin.
The case is no different in the South where we see the aging hero and the young beauty with him. So are we saying that the audience has no problem with the hero’s age but the female lead must be young? If this is the truth, then it is a sad truth.
If the forty-plus actor can be accepted, then why not the forty-plus actress? In Hollywood the actress has as much better chance of staying alive in her career. Jennifer Anniston, Nicole Kidman, Sandra Bullock and Halle Berry to name a few are all over 40 and all still up there with their names on the marquee. And yes, they are damn attractive too!
Is it then the problem with the filmmakers, with stars or with the audience? I think the problem lies with the aging male star who wants to remain young in the minds of the audience by romancing someone much younger. The perception of youth, you see!
It is not a great discovery that this is a place dominated by male stars and we fall in line with what they want. But in the bargain we are doing a great disservice to the actress. The audience makes an investment of time, emotion and money on the female star who might be growing older, but she might still have the beans to light up the screen. We would be foolish to squander away that investment. Not wise.