Older female actresses, and rising female directors, are a force to be reckoned with as they redefine Tinseltown.
DEMI’S SECOND ACT
Fans of Demi Moore’s classic films like Ghost cheered her on as she won her Golden Globe for playing has-been fitness star Elisabeth Sparkle in horror flick The Substance. But many were shocked it was the first major award she’d been given in her 45-year career, after a producer dismissed her as a “popcorn actress” three decades earlier.
“I bought in and I believed that. And that corroded me over time to the point where I thought, a few years ago, that maybe this was it,” Demi, 62, admitted after her big win.
While many see Demi’s win as long overdue recognition, The Substance director Coralie Fargeat saw her as the perfect person to depict the struggles of ageing women, and particularly ageing women in Hollywood.
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“I had to find an actress who symbolises stardom,” Coralie says. “Someone who knows what it’s like to receive love from the people who look at you, but who also knows what it’s like to lose those eyes.”
THE REAL PAMELA
For most of her career, Pamela Anderson was written off as a busty blonde with no real acting talent and a penchant for personal drama.
But lately, the Baywatch star has shown the world she was “misunderstood”, and just weeks ago earned her first Golden Globe nomination for her film, The Last Showgirl.
“It is never too late to dream, to start again, to stay open to possibilities,” Pam, 57, said of playing Shelly, a faded Vegas showgirl.
In 2023, Pamela’s raw documentary revealed a whole different side to the actress – one director Gia Coppola just had to explore.
“Thank God she could see through the nonsense, you know,” Pamela says.
Gia says she “couldn’t take no for an answer”. “I really knew nothing of her as an actress,” she admits. “But after watching her documentary, you see she’s so full of art and creativity.”
NICOLE’S NEW ERA
Aussie actress Nicole Kidman has never faltered in her career, but with raunchy psychological thriller Babygirl, she was given what older female actresses often only dream about – freedom to explore typically taboo subjects on screen.
“A lot of times women are discarded at a certain period of their career as a sexual being. So it was really beautiful to be seen in this way,” Nicole, 57, says of the film, which sees her CEO character embark on a steamy affair with an intern.
“From the minute I read it, I was like, ‘Yeah, this is a voice I haven’t seen, this is a place that I haven’t been, I don’t think audiences have been.”
And Nicole has boundary-pushing Dutch director Halina Reijn to thank for taking her out of her acting comfort zone.
“Halina has always wanted to do something like this,” Nicole says. “That’s probably why we constantly say we need women in all areas of filmmaking, telling different stories.”
JODIE’S STILL A STAR
In an industry that frowns upon women over a certain age, it’s no small thing for Oscar winner Jodie Foster to admit, “This is the most contented moment in my career.”
Jodie, 62, won her first Emmy and fifth Golden Globe for playing hard-nosed Detective Liz Danvers in True Detective: Night Country. Writer/director Issa Lopez had a clear vision: “Make it female.” She says,
“It needed to visit places and situations and characters that we hadn’t seen in it before.”
