Older women poorly represented She is 29, her son is 20 - why does Hollywood do this?

In high school films, 16-year-olds are often played by twenty-somethings. And women in more mature roles often seem strangely young. What do the actresses think? And what does the research say?

"How old is the actress in this movie?" - the question is often not so easy to answer. A teenage girl in a series often doesn't look like someone who is still growing into her body. In the new "Bridgerton" season, which recently started on the streaming service Netflix, 17-year-old Penelope Featherington is played by 37-year-old Nicola Coughlan. And it also works the other way around: in 2004, 29-year-old Angelina Jolie played the mother of a 20-year-old in the blockbuster "Alexander".

Is it true that you tend to see women of a limited age range in film and television?

When the now 59-year-old Ursula Karven ("Stille Post") thinks back to her beginnings, she found some things "idiotic": "I played a public prosecutor when I was 28." She would have liked to have been older herself to be able to fill this role. "But our media landscape still needs time before they really have the size to recognize that older women have a big impact and that older women are sexy. This realization could still take place a little better," Karven told the German Press Agency.

Older women poorly represented in German-language films

What Karven describes is not just a feeling. A study conducted by the University of Rostock in 2021 found that female lead characters in German cinema become increasingly rare with age. For men, this applies from the age of 50, for women from their mid-30s.

The study was initiated by the Malisa Foundation, among others, which campaigns for more equal opportunities for girls and women. The foundation was set up by actress Maria Furtwängler and her daughter. According to the study, women in German cinema were mainly portrayed as young and slim in the context of partnerships and relationships.

Communication scientist Christine Linke from the University of Wismar had worked on a similar previous study in 2016 and on the book "Ausgeblendet: Women in German Film and Television".

According to her, it is important not to have a "simple media logic". "It's not a case of seeing and believing. But a daily, mostly non-alternative influence has an effect on us. It shapes us humans if we only see a limited image of women." On the other hand, men's bodies are treated differently: "While women are generally viewed more critically when it comes to ageing, the media usually only really starts to focus on men from the age of 40. Overall, men of all ages are visible in film and television. And women are not."

US actress Amanda Seyfried

At this year's Berlinale, 38-year-old Seyfried ("Mamma Mia") remarked that she has only been offered roles as a mother since becoming a mother herself. Although these are quite limited opportunities on the one hand, she indicated that the roles offered to her have become more profound: "I have the feeling that the opportunities have become much more exciting for me personally," she told dpa on the sidelines of the Berlinale on the question of different acting ages. "I think everyone is fighting to be seen and understood."

Veronica Ferres sees pure pragmatism

The 58-year-old Veronica Ferres ("Das Superweib") puts the discrepancies between the age of an actress and the age of her role down to pure pragmatism in some cases. "What I can still understand is 18-year-olds playing 17-, 16-year-olds. Of course, this also has to do with the age of majority and with the laws on location, which simply serve to protect - for example - the working hours of young people. That often makes sense for production companies," Ferres told dpa.

But: "What I don't understand is that younger people often play older roles." After all, her new film "Unholy Trinity", in which the 58-year-old plays alongside Pierce Brosnan and Samuel L. Jackson (both over 70), will be released this year. Her role was actually written for a woman in her early 40s.

Jella Haase as the pretentious Chantal

Berlin native Jella Haase (31) is known as the snobbish Chantal from the "Fack Ju Göhte" films. But she herself was already in her early 20s when she slipped into the role of the high school student. This year, she can be seen once again in the spin-off "Chantal im Märchenland". "Sometimes it makes sense, sometimes a bit of life experience helps to embody a younger character," she told dpa. "But sometimes it doesn't."

However, the fact that people are becoming more and more accustomed to young girls appearing more mature than their age is not just down to films. "I think that viewing habits are also being changed by social media in particular," said the 31-year-old. "Where super-young girls look much older. That is definitely something to be criticized."

Communication researcher Linke can also attest to this on a scientific level. "In traditional media and new online media, there is a hypersexualization of female bodies in particular, which starts with children's bodies."

Difference only in teen series

The actresses in popular teen films and series in particular are often older: teenage Rachel Bilson as Summer Roberts in "O.C. California" was already 22 when the first season was released. Buffy actress Sarah Michelle Gellar was already 20 in real life, although she played a 16-year-old vampire slayer. The 16-year-old pop culture icon Regina George from "Girl's Club" was played by Rachel McAdams, who was already around ten years older at the time of filming.

Linke sees a special reason for this. "Teen series and films tend to respond to the desires of a young target group. Young people strive for idols, they often want to be older and more independent. That's completely natural, because at this stage of life you're looking for an identity." An unrealistic image of teenage bodies is therefore created in corresponding series, says Linke. "That's a special feature of this genre, but it should still be questioned."

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