Leading Men Age, But Their Love Interests Don’t

[redqueen]

Yesterday, Kristen Stewart fell out of the con-artist comedy Focus after Will Smith replaced Ben Affleck as the male lead; according to Variety, she was nagged by "the feeling that the age difference between the two would be too large a gap." For the record, Smith is a mere four years older than the 40-year-old Affleck, and if it seems a little odd that either of them would be considered a romantic partner for the 23-year-old Stewart in the first place … well, welcome to Hollywood. It seems like time and time again, male movie stars are allowed to age into their forties, fifties, and even sixties while the ages of their female love interests remain firmly on one side of the big 4-0, but is this a perception borne out of reality? To find out for sure, Vulture has analyzed the data of ten middle-aged leading men and the ages of the women they've wooed onscreen; you'll see the results in the charts below.

How'd we arrive at our conclusions? For each of our leading men, we tried to pick a representative sample of films —usually ten — where that A-lister had a notable love interest or wife, then we plotted the age gaps on our charts over the course of that star's career. (Because production dates for older movies can be hard to come by, we measured the stars' ages on the day the film in question was released.) The results confirmed our suspicions: As leading men age, their love interests stay the same, and even the oldest men on our list have had few romantic pairings with a woman their own age (or even one out of her mid-thirties). If our actor was sharing the screen with an A-lister of commensurate star power like Julia Roberts or Angelina Jolie, the age difference would drop somewhat, but in movies that relied solely on our guy's big name, the lesser-known love interests would nearly always be decades younger.

...

http://www.vulture.com/2013/04/leading-men-age-but-their-love-interests-dont.html

More from the 'stuff you already know' department.

[niyad]

1. isn't that the truth.

I remember reading somewhere that there was some concern on the part of cary grant about the plot of "charade", when his character and audrey hepburn's were supposed to get together. he felt that the age difference might make it seem inappropriate, at the very least.

I am trying to think of any movies where a leading woman has a love interest younger than herself--and the only one I can remember is one with liv ullman and edward albert, called "40 carats"

[redqueen]

2. Aw, Edward Albert...

he was a really nice, genuine guy.

[seabeyond]

4. the last one between bullock and i do not know who the man interest was.

too much of an age gap for me. (conditioned, yes). but the gap kept pulling my attention from the movie.

the proposal.

[Whisp]

10. Harold and Maude

They were more best buds instead of lovers tho, but still the love scene seems to offend a lot of people. Which makes me love the movie more.

[MotherPetrie]

11. One of my fave all-time movies!

[redqueen]

25. I love love love that movie

Especially the part with the tree.

[JustAnotherGen]

27. Absolutely true

My two favorites of all time in one movie - and I'm a huge obsessive A.H. fan.

Cary Grant soon thereafter started to pull back. Jimmy Stewart did the same in the late 1950's.

But - then again - they were both class acts.

[seabeyond]

3. i knew i liked hanks. harrison, clooney and nelsen have been grossing me out.

the hoot? my oldest son, for years now, is the one calling it out when he sees it in the movies. old farts hooking up with the young woman. what young woman wants that. grosses him out and he has all kinds of stuff to say about it. i always giggle when he goes into this particular rant.

just really offends him

[redqueen]

5. He sounds like a hoot

I wonder what kind of conversations he's gonna have with college friends.

[seabeyond]

6. i know. we were just talking about that now. an hour of intellectual conversation,

i asked him, what am i going to do without these conversations. so perceptive.

[redqueen]

7. Skype!

I love Skype

[seabeyond]

8. lol. maybe it is time i start looking into this shit.

i only started texting not long ago. now i forget to call. texting a complicated message and the confusion that comes with it, my husband will say... CALL. lol. oh ya.

i do not even know what skype is. but guessin' i will have to check it out.

[redqueen]

9. It's a video phone call over the net.

Microsoft bought them out so now its getting annoying in some ways, but I haven't found a better one.

[MotherPetrie]

12. Well, I watched That Hagen Girl (1947) on TCM today. Ronald Reagan romancing Shirley Temple.

And the movie was even creepier than THAT sounds.

[ismnotwasm]

14. THAT deserves an extra Ewwww

Ugh

[CrispyQ]

13. Great charts. Thanks for posting.

I thought "Chocolat" was one of Depp's best.

I thought "One Fine Day" was one of Clooney's best.

I thought "Shall We Dance" was one of Gere's best.

The stories are just more believable & real, imo.

In Arbitrage, Gere is 63 vs his love interest at 34. I was 34 once & I was not at all interested in men over 50. Forty five was pushing it.

I think the most outrageous was a James Bond flick where 26 year old Denise Richards was the world renowned physicist, & if that wasn't bad enough, she was in the field, which was at some kind of underground mountain facility, in hot pants. Oh yes, very believable.

[seabeyond]

16. chocolat a favorite. agree with you. though i liked secret window. 37 to 41 in secret window. nt

[CrispyQ]

20. 37-41 is a reasonable age difference. Even 10 years.

But when you get to 15 years, much less 20+, that's really stretching it! Maybe I'm just steeped in too much tradition. No one's ever said that about me before, much less me!

[seabeyond]

22. i can barely do ten. but, i see five year difference as the same age.

it is not like we are getting exact bdays here. someone is going to be older and young.

5 to me seems to be the same. as we get older.

[ismnotwasm]

15. It's probably a combination of marketing

Nothing promotes a movie like a off screen romance, A "because I can" factor, a longing for lost youth, a maturation issue, and in either gender, a desire to obscure ones sexual orientation

It doesn't bother me too much. What bothers me is how women are portrayed so unrealistically young in so many roles.

It's well known there is a dearth of good roles for older women, although for older male 'action' stars they can always do something; from something as excretable as "The Expendables" to academy award winning roles.

For older women its minor roles, TV, or the stage. And that's bullshit.

[seabeyond]

17. older men are running the show in hollywood. i doubt it is about marketing and all about them. nt

[ismnotwasm]

18. Money

Movies need to sell, and to me, this is a symptom of a larger cultural problem.

[CrispyQ]

23. "...this is a symptom of a larger cultural problem."

So true.

I feel as a society we used to have higher standards of conduct. I think the digital age is partly responsible for the decline. We are a culture hooked on entertainment, feeling good & pleasing the self. The marketers don't care what kind of impact their products have on society as long as they make a buck. Hollywood, sports, entertainment in general, all seem to be having a much more profound effect on our culture & not in a good way.

Couple that with the 'greed is good' message that Reagan brought us in the 80s & the dumbing down of the public, via selling out public education & the buy out of our media, & wow. No wonder we are where we are, a shallow country, fixated on material wealth, with a 15 second attention span.

On that happy note, I realize it's time for an internet break!

[ismnotwasm]

31. I do know and again

Enjoy!

[CrispyQ]

19. Here are 10 of my fave actresses that are over 50, with photos, by age, oldest first.

I tried to capture what I thought was the most current a photo.

Diane Keaton, 67


Glenn Close, 66


Susan Sarandon, 66


Kathy Bates, 64


Sigourney Weaver, 63


Meryl Streep, 63


Christine Baranski, 60


Lena Olin, 58


Debra Winger, 57


Michelle Pfeiffer, 53


Only 3 under 60 & only 1 under 55. If I can find these gorgeous women, why can't Hollywood? We know why. Once a woman hits 40, her film career is limited to mostly bit roles, maybe a bigger role if she lands a TV series, or broadway.

Sometimes I wonder why women go into acting, knowing that only a few will be able to continue their careers to the same degree, once they hit 40. I'm not saying that they don't find other, satisfying work in the field, it's just that men stars don't have this issue in film. Bruce Willis is still making action movies like he's in his 30s. Seriously? And then they pair him with a super young actress. When I was 30, I was not attracted to 60 year old guys.

[seabeyond]

21. omg... lol. and they appear to be doing it without going under the knife.

i luv. thanks.

[redqueen]

24. Ha, no, they just aren't going overboard

and they have good surgeons. Most are honest about getting 'touch ups' as they age. Part of the job really

[CrispyQ]

26. The men are getting touchups too.

We should be seeing more of these gorgeous women when the main guy is 60.

OMG! There I just said it - what is really the crux of the problem, "the main guy."

[niyad]

28. goldy hawn's character, elise (an actress) in "first wives' club" says there

are three ages for women in hollywood: ingenue, district attorney, and driving miss daisy. seemed like a fairly gentle assessment.

[redqueen]

29. And two weights.

Thin and obese. No in between women allowed. Although that does seem to be changing... albeit very, very slowly.

[niyad]

30. one of the things I loved about juliette binoche's character in "chocolat"

was the fact that she was a woman with curves and an actual body. as you said, it is changing very slowly. meryl streep in "it's complicated" also didn't look like a stick.

[CrispyQ]

32. "Something's Gotta Give"

An 18 year difference between Keaton & Reeves & yet I know that on this forum I was rooting for Reeves over Nicholson. A lot of that was because the Nicholson character was such a womanizing jerk. Yeah he came around in the end, but he spent most of his older adult life dating only very young women. And I wonder if the Keaton character had been cast as Cathy Bates, would he have come around at all? In other words, can Hollywood even imagine such a thing? So many limitations for older women.

I do love the gentle spirit of the Reeves character, though.

[seabeyond]

33. love reeves. in all the movies i have seen him in. nt

[CrispyQ]

34. Hands off! At 7 years my junior, he falls within the acceptable range!

I don't think I've ever seen him in a movie I didn't like him in. I could see you being his "Point Break" girlfriend.

But don't get any ideas!