Dame Emma Thompson Urges Cinema to 'Catch up' After Startling Stats on Older Women in Film
- Actress Emma Thompson, 67, called on filmmakers to centre more stories on older women, stating "Women are half the population and we get older. So where are the stories about us?" and declaring "cinema just needs to catch up."
- Research from the Centre for Ageing Better revealed that across 2023, 2024 and 2025, just 5 of the 100 highest-grossing films starred a woman over 60, while films were four times more likely to feature a talking animal as lead.
- Only one in three speaking film characters are aged 50 and over despite this age group comprising nearly half of British adults. Dr Carol Easton OBE, chief executive of Centre for Ageing Better, called the gap "absolutely ludicrous" given audiences 55 and above spend hundreds of millions annually on cinema.
- Academics at the University of West London School of Film, Media, and Design found older women on screen are depicted as passive and pitiable, often irrelevant to plot. MPs concluded in February last year that the UK has a "pervasively ageist culture" where discrimination laws fail older people.
- Thompson's filmography since turning 60—including Cruella , Matilda the Musical , and Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy —demonstrates older women's commercial viability. Yet she emphasized that change must extend beyond cinema to all media and employment sectors where older women's input remains marginalised.
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MyCentralOregon.com
Movies more likely to star talking animals or men named Chris than women over 60, study finds
Chris Pratt attends the ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ world premiere at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California, on April 27, 2023. (Rich Polk/Getty Images for Disney) A new study has found that talking animals and men named Chris are more likely to star on the big screen than women over 60. The study was conducted by the Centre for Aging Better through research from the Age Without Limits campaign. It revealed that the 100 highest-grossin…
Dame Emma Thompson urges cinema to 'catch up' after startling stats on older women in film
Dame Emma Thompson has helping campaign for a new study which found films are more likely to star an actor named Chris or a talking animal than a woman over the age of 60.
The Independent
The Independent (US)More hit films starred a man called Chris than a woman aged over 60, says new study
‘Absolutely ludicrous,’ said the actor following research from the Age Without Limits campaign
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