Maggie Gyllenhaal told 37 is "too old" to play love interest of a 55-year-old dude

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Nuff said…

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Sometimes Hollywood will just compensate by having multiple female love interests whose cumulative ages approximate that of the male lead.

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Lionel Barrymore first played my grandfather, later my father, and finally, he played my husband. If he’d lived, I’m sure I’d have played his mother. That’s the way it is in Hollywood. The men get younger and the women get older.

  • Lilian Gish
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Well, there’s a movie I probably won’t see… not because of this absurd misogyny but because I absolutely adore Ms. Gyllenhall and her excellent range as an actor. I go out of my way to see any movies she deems worthy of her attention in the same way I do comparable male talents.

Of course, if we’re discussing “love interests,” and hence sex/attractiveness, I find her unrivaled in Hollywood. Her combination of intelligence, political leanings, quick-wit, and physical appearance will likely* continue to be sexy until she drops dead.

*I say “likely” because sometimes people go all Dennis Miller after 9/11 on you.

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A+, Agreed, I adore her to bits. She is a delight.

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Maggie could have the job if she’d just become younger. Easy! All the ads say so. And ads don’t lie.

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All the more reason (as if we needed more reasons!) for the talent to leave Hollywood. They wouldn’t know what to do with talent even if it could be bought and sold. Remember, dozens of movies come out every month, and most of them are not from Hollywood. Don’t leave production and distribution to those out-of-touch dinosaurs.

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let’s see here

For your Eyes only (1981)

Roger Moore (Bond): 54
Carole Bouquet (Melina): 24
Lynn Holly Johnson: (Bibi Dahl): 23

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It would be nice to see something different in a female love interest. For example, I’ve had trouble watching “The Last Man on Earth” because the main character always wants to ditch Kristen Schaal’s character in favor of January Jones, who is an utterly generic hot blonde. To me, women with interesting features and a unique personality are far interesting than the standardized version of what an attractive woman is supposed to look like.

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Schaal was my favorite character on Mad Men:

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No. Stop. Just stop. No.

Also pictured: Stephanie Courtney (aka Flo).

Bad logic. They don’t cast a love interest for the actor in the movie, they cast the love interest for the audience they’re aiming for. I’m not saying it’s right, I’m not saying it’s fair. It’s just what is happening.

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From the article:
“Gyllenhaal declined to specify the project on which she was considered too old, but we’re wide open to suggestions. What’s casting out there with a 55-year-old leading man?”

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The trouble is that their expectations of what the audiences want may be skewed. Take science fiction, for example. They tell themselves that women don’t like science fiction, so they make science fiction that skews heavily towards male interests, and, as a consequence, women don’t go to see those movies. If they produced something more balanced, on the other hand, they might attract a much wider audience.

A lot of shows/films succeed because they present characters and situations that are underrepresented elsewhere. Harold and Maud, for example, wasn’t one of the most successful films of all time, but it has developed a pretty substantial cult following.

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The article doesn’t mention what age the character she was interested in was supposed to be though. Maybe it was 20-something? Of course maybe the character was supposed to be in their early 30s, in which case she could easily pull it off, she looks great. Or is the problem she’s talking about just that too many movies have older men hooking up with younger women? I’m guessing that is true, and even though that happens often enough in real life too, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s far more likely to happen on screen, presumably film executives would justify it to themselves (and their bottom line) as being aspirational.

I sure hope that females 18-35 were turned on by the “power of love” in Interstellar, because I thought it was out of place in a movie about rocketships.

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Val Kilmer?

Heh. James Spader is 55. Gyllenhaal’s already played his ‘love’ interest once before.

Hugo Weaving?
Kevin Spacey?
Hugh Laurie?
Rupert Everett?
Mark Rylance?
Ken Watanabe?

Okay, I’m bored now.

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Haven’t seen that. I’m thinking more in terms of something like Firefly, where the cast is balanced and the female characters are more than love interests.

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