Russell Crowe, known for being so much more than an alpha male, offered the following point of view during an interview with Australian Women's Weekly. Said interview did take place just before Christmas, but the world was too busy bunkering down with the egg nog and the selotape to pay it much heed. Now that we're all emerging from the cocoon of Christmas we're finally taking some notice. Here's what he had to say regarding female actresses over a certain age, and the roles their offered.
"To be honest, I think you’ll find that the woman who is saying that [the roles have dried up] is the woman who at 40, 45, 48, still wants to play the ingénue, and can’t understand why she’s not being cast as the 21-year-old. Meryl Streep will give you 10,000 examples and arguments as to why that’s bullshit, so will Helen Mirren, or whoever it happens to be. If you are willing to live in your own skin, you can work as an actor. If you are trying to pretend that you’re still the young buck when you're my age, it just doesn't work... I have heard of an actress, part of her fee negotiation was getting the number of children she was supposed to have lessened. Can you believe this? This (character) was a woman with four children, and there were reasons why she had to have four children - mainly, she lived in a cold climate and there was nothing to do but fornicate all day - so quit arguing, just play the role!"
Yeah, Lady, just play the ONE role that's open to you, because Meryl Streep and Helen Mirren have nabbed the other two roles of note penned for women this year. All the other roles (mainly as the aforementioned ingenue to male actors several decades her senior) are for Jennifer Lawrence and Emma Stone, so you've missed the boat. That's just life, quit arguing and just play the role of the mother with the brood of children because that's all there is. That ONE ROLE. Capiche?!
Towards the end of the interview, Russell may have copped he was talking to a woman's magazine, because he then dutifully came across with: "The point is, you do have to be prepared to accept that there are stages in life. So I can’t be the Gladiator forever." Yeah, but then you get to be a Water Diviner (Crowe is currently drumming up interest in his latest film, The Water Diviner), while your female equivalent gets to... gets to... Oh, you see, there is no female equivalent to you, because a role has never been written for her.
