So I went to the first showing of Unknown starring Liam Neeson on Friday. Now I'm not here to give a review, though I did like it, but not as much as Neeson's Taken. I confess that my main interest in films these days is action/adventure, SciFi and the like, so I'm sure that I favor these types of films probably a lot more than the average film-goer.
What I want to bring up is the age difference between the male and female actors. I couldn't help but notice that both female leads were a lot younger than their male counterparts. I even went to the Internet Movie Database to check it out.
The top five male actors were all born earlier than 1963 ( Neeson - 1952, Aidan Quinn - 1959, Bruno Ganz - 1941, Frank Langella - 1948, and Sebastian Koch - 1962.
Both female leads were born in the 70s: Diane Kruger - 1976 and January Jones - 1978.
If ever this was an example of age discrimination for women, this is it. I mean really. 58-year-old Neeson "married" to 33-year-old Jones? That's a 25-year difference in age. You mean to tell me that there are no actresses much nearer to Neeson's age that could have played the role? I don't think so.
It seems the "ideal" lead roles are mid- to late-50s male actors and early to mid-30s females. Let me guess: the younger men will go to see the hottie 30s babes and the females will go to see the "rugged" manly males. If I looked hard enough (which I won't - it's too depressing), I would find movies in which the male leads are in their forties and the females in their mid 20s. Really sad.
Now I realize that this age discrimination has been around the movie industry practically since its inception. One can go back to Bogart (born 1899) and Bacall (born 1922), a difference of 23 years.
I'm sure one can go even further back, but I'll let the reader of this post research it, if he or she is of a mind.
I realize that in real life there are relationships that have such age differences. But I would bet that it's not the norm (which it is in Hollywood films). I would also hazard an educated guess that the percentage of the December/May "romances" are directly proportional to how wealthy the male is (Think Hugh Hefner, for example).
The sad part is I just don't see this going away. I really feel bad for those women actors who have cracked the forty years of age barrier. I can sure understand their fear of being marginalized in the film industry.
