Actress Age Limits
In the classic Hollywood film, Sunset Boulevard, Norma (a once famous silent screen star from the 1920’s), is now a mature aged woman desperately trying to relive her past glory days.
A woman who was once incredibly famous for her beauty and youth, now finds ageing so psychologically intolerable, she prefers to live in a fantasy world of her own making.
By the end of the film she’s reached rock bottom as she melodramatically intones her famous line: “I’m ready for my close up Mr De Mille”…
Unlike Norma, today’s fading actress or celebrity need not languish in the shadows because there aren’t too many good female roles in film or TV coming her way. She can always start a Tiktok account and post videos of herself for her fans in order to maintain some kind of relevance…
Although that approach can often backfire as the new generation often has no respect for the artist’s previous work and actually enjoys desecrating the fallen idol in ways that can only be described as brutal.
Leaving violent comments like:
“Put it away grandma!”
Or : “If you’re too old to be sexy, be weird!”
It’s pretty clear society at large still has quite a set of complex and rigid definitions in their mind about what constitutes appropriate behaviour for the mature female artist.
Of course matters aren’t quite as critical for some kinds of female artists advancing in years, but for the actress or pop star who has previously come to fame and fortune because of their youthful appearance and agility, it can get pretty ferocious out there.
For example, think of the mature aged jazz or opera singer - they can grow old, put on weight - it doesn’t bother the crucifying crowd because their songstress identity was never so dependent on their ability to portray themselves within the sex goddess archetype.
Not the case for the once gorgeous, agile pop starlet or actress! The murderous crowd just can’t wait to tear down the celebrities they once worshiped as soon as the expiry date occurs.
Oh how they love to see the flower fade. “Just like me”, they whisper to themselves.
“She’s just the same as me”.
A mere mortal, fighting hard against the degradation of the flesh.
And perhaps they get a little angry about that too, wondering how they could have wasted so many moments in life, idolizing a star when it would ultimately end in shock, watching her melt under so much plastic surgery.
We don’t want our idols melting in front of our eyes…Shouldn’t she go away somewhere and do that in private?
So many women, unable to appreciate their own unique self-worth, willingly took their place underneath the shadow of their favorite pop star’s gigantic image, worshiping and ignoring the state of their own soul.
Even those who were not active fans were still influenced by her in one way or another.
And now the time has arrived- even though it might still be enjoyable being distracted by her, it’s not for the same reason. It now might seem quite disturbing - the fakery, the exaggerated projection of the ego self.
It’s just too much, it doesn’t make sense anymore, the song screaming for attention, the one that thinks it needs that kind of attention for survival?
Perhaps we could all try to understand it a little more from the perspective of the once gorgeous Hollywood actress…
Falling from such a great height, would be very harsh indeed.
How do you think it would feel being asked to play a grandmother on Little House on the Prairie, or a homeless person outside the 7/11 after you’d previously only played glamorous roles? Knowing you’re considered way over the actress age limit because your birth certificate makes you more than forty?
“Every day Hollywood actresses are hunted like wild game animals caught in the blaring lights of the paparazzi, damned if they tweak and damned if they don’t” - Gorgeous Women, Cristina D’Riviera
