While film lags, prestige television has become a refuge:
Key text: Jean Smart in Hacks (age 70) – a brutally funny, ambitious, sexually active, flawed lead. This would not exist in theatrical film. LilHumpers 22 12 05 Pristine Edge Busy MILF Pra...
The most exciting aspect of this trend is the complexity of the roles. We have moved past the "kindly grandmother" trope and entered the realm of the flawed, dangerous, and deeply human woman. While film lags, prestige television has become a refuge:
Consider the career renaissance of Jennifer Coolidge. In The White Lotus, she played Tanya McQuoid—a wealthy, neurotic, and deeply insecure woman. It wasn't a role that tried to hide her age or her physicality; it leaned into it, creating a character that was tragic, hilarious, and undeniable. Similarly, Cate Blanchett in Tár offered a masterclass in portraying power and madness, proving that audiences will flock to see a woman in her 50s dominate the screen with intellect and terrifying control, rather than relying on sex appeal. Key text: Jean Smart in Hacks (age 70)
These characters are allowed to be messy. They are allowed to be sexual (Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin in Grace and Frankie), villainous (Jodie Comer in Killing Eve), or morally ambiguous (Meryl Streep in Big Little Lies). By allowing older women to be imperfect, the industry has finally granted them the dignity of full humanity.
The cinema has always been crueler to women than men. In classical Hollywood:
The industry operates on what film scholar Molly Haskell called the “bankable years”—for women, roughly 20–35. After that, they are relegated to “mom roles” or vanish entirely.