Agism and Weight in Hollywood // GetDaGoss.com

Kate Winslet in The Reader

2008-06-22 23:47:11 -

Originally Published: www.GetDaGoss.com/blogs/?id=4604

Written by Adrian Twist

Can you guess the old goat? It's the latest pic of none other than Kate Winslet from Titanic fame.

I was quite relieved to find out she was in full make-up and costume for her latest role in The Reader and not suffering from some strange ailment that robs its recipient of all youth, vitality and glamour.

You've gotta hand it to Ms. Winslet, she knows how to keep it real. She's not scared to toss vanity out the window and refuses to look like all the food deprived actresses out here in Hollywood. As much as I'd like to see her in more glamorous roles, I really admire her determination to stay true to herself.

If you'll recall, she was on the cover of the February 2003 GQ and had about 1/3 of her thighs Photoshopped away to the trash file. She became livid and was quite embarrassed by the ordeal. Alicia SIlverstone suffered the same humiliation when she was called "Fat Girl" by the press after they saw her in Batman and Robin - she played Bat Girl.

One of the major contradictions in the film industry is that actresses are expected to look young and thin if they want to work. Even when they maintain that youthful appearance, they're often considered too "unnatural" for the role. For example, if a director had a movie set in the '30s or '40s and needed an actress to play a 45-year-old mother, who would s/he hire? Demi Moore looks 25 and Nicole Kidman looks so Botoxed and far, far removed from the 1940s. So many actresses past 38 have stretched back faces that are just hard to look at on the big screen, so I can imagine the difficulty of casting said role. They can also be in too great of shape to be believable as anything other than an android (Madonna, Demi).

If actresses don't get work done, the audience is just as unforgiving. I saw Kit Kittridge: An American Girl on Saturday and was surprised to see how naturally and beautifully Julia Ormond has let herself age. I remember her vividly from Sabrina and Legends of the Fall and how I was completely blown away by her crisp beauty. At risk of sounding hypocritical, I could see in her latest film that her beauty was a bit weathered and wondered why she hasn't gotten any work done. To her credit, I also thought how unbelievable Angelina Jolie would have been in her role as Abigail Breslin's mother. The big screen is unforgiving, but the depression era movie didn't call for glamorous make-up, trick lighting or extreme beauty.

Joan Cusack was also in the movie and looked absolutely haggard, but she best stay far away from any major work. She was never a screen siren, so her newfound frumpiness can actually work in her favor as far as getting steady employment.

God, it must be hard for aging actresses (any actress past 25) - Al Pacino and Jack Nicholson are hardly the pillar of "movie star looks" these days, yet they're still at the top of their game - women just get tossed away (Kathleen Turner, Farrah Fawcett, Sharon Stone).

Tragic, wrong, but true!

Originally Published: www.GetDaGoss.com/blogs/?id=4604


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