Although Archer landed some of her biggest roles after her hitting the big 4-0, the Oscar-nominated actress told The Daily Beast she has never been more disappointed with women’s positions in showbiz and said gender equality might be an impossible to achieve.
“People have been asking that question for 40, 50 years and I haven’t seen it happen,” she said. “Ten years ago I probably thought it would change, but now I’m more realistic.”
It’s been half a century since Tinseltown underwent a liberal revolution – and while Archer, 66, is currently playing outspoken Hollywood activist Jane Fonda in a production at the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland – she said parts for older actors are usually written for men.
“The world market is young men, usually 18 to 25, that is your big market where they make the big money. And that is what everybody wants: to see young women naked in films,” Archer said.
“A lot of women are major stars all through their 20s and 30s – it is always a big struggle for a woman when she hits 40.”
Archer was an exception to that rule though as she starred in a string of blockbusters post 40 in the ’90s. Her films included Fatal Attraction, Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger opposite Harrison Ford.
Anne Archer with Glenn Close and Michael Douglas for 1987’s Fatal Attraction.
Her latest role, Trial of Jane Fonda, is a controversially candid examination of the backlash against Fonda following her Vietnam activism.
The production is based on an actual meeting that took place between Jane Fonda and six angry Vietnam vets in 1988 whereby the Hollywood campaigner tried to convince the ex-soldiers her Hanoi Jane identity was overstated and she was not an anti-American traitor.
According to Archer, Fonda tried to stop the project from going ahead.
“She said, ‘You have no idea what a hot potato this is, and the problems it would cause for me and the problems it would cause for you and what it stirs up,'” Archer told The Daily Beast.
And it seems Fonda is not wrong as Archer’s own brother, who was a Navy pilot, has boycotted the show.
“He doesn’t like her,” explains Archer. “He has that part of him that is a band of brothers with the military and they don’t break ranks.”
