Does the Oscars still have a female ageing issue in 2024? Why Hollywood might finally be turning a corner
Goldie Hawn’s character in The First Wives Club summed it up best: “There are only three ages for women in Hollywood: babe, district attorney, or Driving Miss Daisy.”
That was almost 30 years ago, but we’re still having the conversation.
A land of airbrushed perfection, Hollywood has always had an issue with ageing – reflected in who wins what at the big awards. For decades, there has been an age disparity between Oscar-winning actors and actresses, with veteran male stars feted, while for women it has typically been the younger “ingenues” collecting the gongs.
There has been much talk of change in the industry in recent years – but is it actually happening?
Sky News analysis of the Oscars acting categories across 10-year periods shows there has typically always been a gap between the average age of female winners and male winners.
However, following the results at recent ceremonies – cemented with wins for Everything Everywhere All At Once stars Michelle Yeoh (now 61) and Jamie Lee Curtis (now 65) in 2023 – the average age gap closed for the first time last year.
Oscars gender age gap
What happens if you look at single years?
The graph above shows the average ages during 10-year periods to show when trends emerge, but taking single years into account the difference has often been even starker.
In 2000, for instance – the age gap between the then 25-year-old Hilary Swank (best actress) and 24-year-old Angelina Jolie (best supporting actress) was small. But in the equivalent male categories, the gap was almost 30 years – between Kevin Spacey (40 at the time, best actor) and Michael Caine (then 67, best supporting actor). This means that, across both the male and female categories that year, the average age gap was 29 years.
In 2013, the average age gap was 29.5 years, with Jennifer Lawrence (22 at the time) and Anne Hathaway (30) winning the female acting awards, and Daniel Day-Lewis (55) and Christoph Waltz (56) picking up the trophies for the men.
That’s not to say this doesn’t occasionally happen the other way around. In 1990, the acting age gap was 29 years but this time with the female average the higher number. The winners? Daniel Day-Lewis and Denzel Washington (then aged 32 and 35); Brenda Fricker (45) and Jessica Tandy (80) – for, interestingly, her performance in Driving Miss Daisy.
In 95 years of the Oscars, this is the only time the female average age has been more than 20 years higher than the male average age – something that has happened 14 times the other way round. Hawn really did have a point.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the honouring of older men and younger women was all particularly prevalent in the 1990s and 2000s; in the 20 years from 1990 to 2009, the average age of female winners was higher than the male winners on just three occasions.
But in the last 10 years, there have been five years when the female average age has been higher, and five years when the male average age has been higher.
Equality!
Well, not quite. If things go as predicted this year then the two male winners will be on average about 16 years older than the two female stars – but then again, last year, the average age for the women was nine-and-a-half years more than that for the men.
It’s too early to say for definite that Hollywood has turned a corner – but the data certainly shows promise following years of conversations about the need for improving and diversifying roles for women of all ages on screen.
‘In the ’60s, I never saw another woman’
Jodie Foster won her second Oscar for best actress in 1992, for her performance in Silence Of The Lambs. Pic: AP/NewsBase
Jodie Foster was just 12 when she controversially starred as a child prostitute alongside Robert De Niro in Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver in 1976 – the film that earned the star her first Oscar nomination, for best supporting actress, at 14, and made her one of the youngest nominees ever.
She went on to win the Academy Award for best actress twice, for The Accused and Silence Of The Lambs in 1989 and 1992 – both before she was 30 – and is now, more than 30 years later, up for best supporting actress once again for her performance in Nyad. The film stars Annette Bening (nominated for best actress) as endurance-swimmer Diana Nyad, who at 60 decided to re-attempt the punishing 110-mile swim from Cuba to Florida which eluded her in her youth, and Foster as her friend and trainer Bonnie Stoll.
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Foster as Bonnie Stoll and Annette Bening as Diana Nyad. Pic: Kimberley French/Netflix
Foster, 61, says the industry has come “a long way” since she started out starring in adverts as a child in the 1960s. “I’ve been in the business for 58 years,” she tells Sky News. “When I first started in the ’60s, I never saw another woman… sometimes it was the lady who played my mom, or sometimes a make-up artist, but for the most part it was really just an entirely male environment.
“That’s changed, little by little by little, with [female] technicians coming in and female producers and now, really just recently for the United States, women directors. That was the last bastion of change, where we now have more women directors… I have seen that change, for sure.”
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‘It was an entirely male environment’
The actress has most recently been seen in the latest season of the hit series True Detective, in which she stars as a police chief alongside Kali Reis as a state trooper, investigating mysterious disappearances from a research station in Alaska.
After “playing strong women my whole life”, Foster says two female characters leading a show should not be headline news – but what has changed for women on screen is the way characters are developed. “The world of complexity hasn’t always been reserved for women. We were ‘the mother of…’, ‘the sister of…’, ‘the prostitute’, you know. It has taken a lot of work by women to flesh out female characters in the industry over time.”
‘You don’t pay us as much – but we still have some clout’
Olivia Colman accepts her best actress award at the Oscars in 2019. Pic: Matt Petit/AMPAS/Reuters
British actress Olivia Colman, who won the Oscar for best actress in 2019 for her portrayal of Queen Anne in The Favourite, and can currently be seen starring in mystery comedy Wicked Little Letters, says things are getting better but there is still a way to go – when it comes to roles and pay.
“Let’s fight for that journey,” she tells Sky News. “Over half the world’s population is women. We are interested in seeing ourselves reflected in stories, as all people are – wherever you’re from, you want to see yourself reflected in a story.
“I don’t stop watching telly once I’m 31, or films or stories or theatre, I still want to watch. And although you don’t pay us as much, we still have some clout. So – don’t underestimate women!”
‘More great roles – and not just for Meryl Streep’
Film critic Anna Smith, co-host of the Girls On Film podcast, says there has been a history of Hollywood casting younger women alongside older male stars.
“Whereas you can be a sexy George Clooney getting older, women – even in their 40s – can struggle to get work. I know some actresses that say when they reach a certain age, there’s a couple of decades where they’re a bit stuck because they either play the mum role or they have to wait and play the grandmother role. There aren’t as many meaty roles for women of all ages as there should be – and when they do happen, sometimes the older roles, they can be very cliched.”
However, Smith thinks that while there is still more work to be done to level the playing field, there has definitely been a shift in the last decade – and since the rise of the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements especially.
“We are seeing more great roles for older actresses and a variety – not just Meryl Streep, you know, there’s a little bit more out there for everybody. You look at Frances McDormand in Nomadland [in 2021]… she gives a wonderful performance and [it was] great to see that recognised at the Oscars and many other ceremonies.”
Michelle Yeoh in Everything Everywhere All At Once. Pic: A24
There is one thing she points out about Everything Everywhere All At Once, though. “The central role was originally conceived for Jackie Chan, and then they flipped it. And what you actually often find in recent years, when you get a film that is recognised well at the Oscars etc, when it’s a strong female character, a complex female character, it was often planned for a man…
“I have mixed feelings about that. On the one hand – great that people are open-minded enough now to go, hang on a minute, let’s just check our bias here, why is this role going to a man when it could go to a woman? That’s great, to challenge your bias, but at the same time, that does suggest complex roles for women aren’t being written specifically for women.”
So what needs to be done?
“I think there needs to be more investment in independent film and also people keeping an eye on the Hollywood machine,” says Smith. “Anyone working in the diversity area within big studios, I think, has got a real influence and the potential to make a change.
“The more people of different ages and ethnicities and backgrounds who are working in film and keep an open mind and are challenging their own biases, the more interesting and complex older characters we get. But I would also love to see people judging women less by their looks. I think there’s a real issue still in Hollywood, where some women feel pressured to have cosmetic surgery at a certain age in order to conform to some kind of unrealistic beauty standards.
“I think it’s a problem that is hopefully going away slightly, because you do look at the likes of Jamie Lee Curtis and she looks like an ordinary woman of her age, which is incredible. I would like to see more of that.”
In the Oscars acting results of recent years at least, it does feel like Hollywood has moved on from the ages of babe, district attorney and Driving Miss Daisy only.
Now Tinseltown just has to continue allowing women to grow old on screen, gracefully or otherwise – exactly the same as the men.
Brazilian police say they foiled a bomb attack planned for a Lady Gaga concert on Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana beach that attracted an estimated 2.1 million people.
The plot was orchestrated by a group promoting hate speech and the radicalisation of teenagers, including self-harm and violent content as a form of social belonging, according to the Civil Police of Rio de Janeiro, which worked in coordination with the country’s justice ministry.
“The suspects were recruiting participants, including minors, to carry out coordinated attacks using improvised explosives and Molotov cocktails,” the force said.
The justice ministry said the recruiters identified themselves as Gaga’s fans, known as “Little Monsters”.
It said Operation Fake Monster was based on a report by the ministry’s cyber operations lab following a tip-off from Rio state police intelligence, which uncovered digital cells encouraging violent behaviour among teenagers using coded language and extremist symbolism.
Authorities carried out over a dozen search and seizure warrants, and a man described as the group’s leader was arrested in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul for illegal possession of a firearm, and a teenager was detained in Rio de Janeiro for storing child abuse images.
Lady Gaga performing at the huge open-air concert. Pic: Reuters
Gaga’s biggest ever show
Some 500,000 tourists travelled to watch the concert, which was paid for by the city in an attempt to boost the struggling economy.
Saturday night’s two-hour show, which marked Gaga’s biggest ever, marked the first time she had played in Brazil since 2012, having cancelled an appearance at the Rock in Rio festival in 2017 over health issues.
Gaga, who released her seventh studio album, Mayhem, in March, opened with a dramatic, operatic edition of her 2011 track Bloody Mary, before launching into Abracadabra, a recent track.
Pic: AP
Pic: AP
“Brazil! I missed you. I missed you so much,” she exclaimed, before launching into Poker Face, one of her biggest hits.
The American pop star drew in a similar crowd to Madonna’s in May last year, who performed at the same beach, which is transformed into an enormous dance floor for the shows.
Addressing the crowd in English and through a Portuguese translator, Gaga became emotional as she said: “I’m so honoured to be here with you tonight.
Gaga addresses the crowd. Pic: Reuters
Gaga seen performing on giant screens set up across the beach. Pic: Reuters
“Tonight we’re making history, but no one makes history alone. Without all of you, the incredible people of Brazil, I wouldn’t have this moment. Thank you for making history with me.
“The people of Brazil are the reason I get to shine today. But of all the things I can thank you for, the one I most am grateful for is this: that you waited for me. You waited more than 10 years for me.”
She said it took so long to come back because she was “healing” and “getting stronger”. The pop sensation cancelled many of her shows in 2017 and 2018 due to her fibromyalgia condition, which can cause pain and fatigue.
It is estimated Gaga’s show will have injected around 600 million reais (£79.9m) into the economy, nearly 30% more than Madonna’s show.
Pic: Reuters
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The large-scale free shows are set to continue annually until at least 2028, always taking place in May, which is considered the economy’s “low season”, according to the city’s government.
A hefty security plan was in place, including the presence of 3,300 military and 1,500 police officers, along with 400 military firefighters.
‘A dream come true’
Pic: AP
The city has been swarmed with Gaga fans since her arrival on Tuesday, with some even keeping vigil outside of the hotel she has been staying at.
Many arrived at the beach at the crack of dawn on Saturday to secure good spots on the beach, despite the show not starting until 9.45pm.
An aerial view shows fans gathering on Copacabana beach ahead of Lady Gaga’s arrival. Pic: Reuters
Ana Lara Folador, who attended with her sister, said it was “a dream come true”, and that Gaga had “really shaped a part of my personality, as a person and an artist”.
Ingrid Serrano, a 30-year-old engineer who made a cross-continent trip from Colombia to Brazil to attend the show, turned up in a T-shirt featuring Lady Gaga’s outlandish costumes over the years.
“I’ve been a 100% fan of Lady Gaga my whole life,” she said, adding the 39-year-old megastar represented “total freedom of expression – being who one wants without shame”.
A fan dons an unusual face mask. Pic: AP
A fan strikes a pose. Pic: AP
Matheus Silvestroni, 25, an aspiring DJ and a Gaga fan since the age of 12, endured an eight-hour bus ride from Sao Paulo for the show.
He said it was Gaga who had inspired him to embrace his sexuality and pursue his dream of becoming an artist.
“I was bullied because I was a fat, gay kid, so I was an easy target,” he said. “Gaga was very important because she sent a message that everything was okay with me, I wasn’t a freak, because I was ‘Born This Way’.”
Rio is known for holding massive open-air concerts, with Rod Stewart holding a Guinness World Record for the four million-strong crowd he drew to Copacabana beach in 1994.
Entertainment
John Lithgow on JK Rowling’s trans stance backlash: ‘She’s handled it fairly gracefully’
John Lithgow is a man well aware of cancel culture and its ability to destroy careers in the blink of an eye.
The Oscar-nominated actor tells Sky News: “It is terrible to be so careful about what you say. Even in an interview like this. It goes into the world, and you can get misconstrued and misrepresented and cancelled in [the click of a finger].”
Roald Dahl is the subject of West End play Giant, by Mark Rosenblatt. Pic: Johan Persson
It’s a theme that runs parallel with his latest work – the stage show Giant – which through the lens of one explosive day in children’s author Roald Dahl‘s life, poses the question, should we look for moral purity in our artists?
The writer of great works including The Witches, Matilda and The BFG, Dahl revolutionised children’s literature with his irreverent approach, inspiring generations of readers and selling hundreds of millions worldwide. But his legacy is conflicted.
Lithgow describes Dahl as “a man with great charm, great wit and literary talent. A man who really cared about children and loved them. But a man who carried a lot of demons.”
Specifically, the play – which explores Palestinian rights versus antisemitism – deals with the fallout from controversial comments the children’s author made over the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982. Its themes couldn’t be more timely.
Lithgow explains: “Things are said in the play that nobody dares to say out loud… But God knows this is a complicated and contradictory issue.”
John Lithgow plays Dahl – a man capable of ‘great compassion’ and ‘enormous cruelty’. Pic: Johan Persson
‘It didn’t start as an idea about Roald Dahl at all’
So controversial are some of the play’s themes, the 79-year-old star admits his own son warned him: “Prepare yourself. There’ll be demonstrations in Sloane Square outside the Royal Court Theatre.”
Indeed, the play’s first run carried an audience warning flagging “antisemitic language; graphic descriptions of violence; emotional discussion of themes including conflict in the Middle East, Israel and Palestine; and strong language”.
But it didn’t put audiences off. Following a sold-out run at the Royal Court, the role won Lithgow an Olivier. Now, it’s transferring to London’s West End.
The play was written by Mark Rosenblatt, a seasoned theatre director but debut playwright.
He tells Sky News: “It didn’t start as an idea about Roald Dahl at all. It was about the blurring of meaningful political discourse with racism, specifically when, in 2018, the inquiry into antisemitism in the Labour Party started to come out.”
Rosenblatt describes Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes and Dirty Beasts as the “wallpaper” of his childhood, and says he had no desire to “smash the Roald Dahl pinata”.
But despite the fond recollections, he was conflicted: “Understanding that [Dahl] also, possibly, didn’t like someone like me because I’m Jewish felt complicated.” It was Rosenblatt’s exploration of “how you hold those two things at the same time” that led to Dahl becoming the play’s focus.
Elliot Levey plays Dahl’s Jewish publisher, and Aya Cash plays an American Jewish sales executive. Pic: Johan Persson
‘He’s not cancelled in our home’
Rosenblatt describes him as “a complex man, capable of great compassion, great passionate defence of oppressed people, and also capable of enormous cruelty and manipulation. He was many things at once”.
And as for Dahl’s place in his life now? Rosenblatt says: “I still read his books to my kids. He’s certainly not cancelled in our home.”
It’s likely that Dahl’s comments, if uttered today, would lead to swift social media condemnation, but writing in a pre-social media age, the judgment over his words came at a much slower pace.
Dahl died in 1990, and his family later apologised for antisemitic remarks he made during his lifetime. But the debate of whether art can be separated from the artist is still very much alive today.
Earlier this month, Lithgow found himself drawn into a different row over artists and their opinions – this time concerning author JK Rowling.
JK Rowling in 2019. Pic:AP
‘A matter of nuance’
Soon to play Dumbledore in the Harry Potter TV series, he has been criticised by some fans for working with the author known for her gender critical beliefs.
Lithgow told Sky News: “It’s a question I’m getting asked constantly. I suppose I should get used to that, but JK Rowling has created an amazing canon of books for kids…
“I have my own feelings on this subject. But I’m certainly not going to hesitate to speak about it. Just because I may disagree… It’s a matter of nuance… I think she’s handled it fairly gracefully.”
The actor ignored calls not to take the role.
He goes on: “Honestly, I’d rather be involved in this than not. And if I’m going to speak on this subject, I’m speaking from inside this project and very much a partner with JK Rowling on it.”
Demanding an eight-year commitment and a move to the UK for the part, the stakes are high.
And with a legion of Harry Potter fans watching on from the wings, only time will tell if the Lithgow-Rowling partnership will prove a magical one.
Giant is playing at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London until Saturday, 2 August.
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