{"id":916,"date":"2026-05-31T11:09:31","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T11:09:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/homebuyerrelocation.com\/?p=916"},"modified":"2026-05-31T11:09:31","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T11:09:31","slug":"analysis-hollywood-more-likely-to-cast-a-man-named-chris-or-talking-animal-than-a-woman-over-60","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/homebuyerrelocation.com\/?p=916","title":{"rendered":"Analysis: Hollywood more likely to cast a man named Chris or talking animal than a woman over 60"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p>A new analysis by a British anti-ageism campaign finds that the film industry\u2019s top-grossing movies are more likely to feature a male lead named Chris \u2014 or even a talking animal \u2014 than a woman over the age of 60, drawing renewed calls for Hollywood to address what advocates describe as a pervasive culture of age-based discrimination.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/homebuyerrelocation.com\/?p=914\">Most new moms get the baby blues. But it could be something more serious: postpartum depression<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Among the 100 highest-grossing films at the United Kingdom box office for 2023, 2024, and 2025, six featured a lead actor named Chris, compared to just five featuring women over 60 in a lead role, according to the Age Without Limits campaign, backed by the Centre for Ageing Better. The same analysis found that films are four times more likely to feature a talking animal in the lead role than a female actor over the age of 60. <\/p>\n<p>The five films from the past three years that starred a woman over 60 were Jennifer Saunders in \u201cAllelujah,\u201d Nia Vardalos in \u201cMy Big Fat Greek Wedding 3,\u201d Diane Keaton in \u201cBook Club: The Next Chapter,\u201d Demi Moore in \u201cThe Substance\u201d and Jamie Lee Curtis in \u201cFreakier Friday.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Oscar-winning actress Emma Thompson lent her voice to the campaign, arguing that the industry has failed to reflect the full breadth of human experience.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWomen are half the population and we get older,\u201d Ms. Thompson said in a statement to Age Without Limits. \u201cSo where are the stories about us? The older we get, the more interesting we are. I want to see more films centre ageing women, we are compelling, relatable, and overdue for centre stage. Older women don\u2019t need permission to exist on screen. They already exist in the world, cinema just needs to catch up.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Age Without Limits campaign also commissioned public polling through Opinium alongside a separate body of academic research conducted by the University of West London School of Film, Media and Design. One in three respondents \u2014 33% \u2014 said there are not enough films being made featuring female actors over 60 as lead characters, compared to roughly 1 in 30 people, or 3% who said too many such films exist. Among women surveyed, that figure rose to nearly 2 in 5, or 39%.<\/p>\n<p>The polling also offered a commercial argument for change. About 1 in 6 respondents, or 16%, said they would be more likely to see a film if it starred a woman over 60 \u2014 nearly twice the share, 9%, who said it would make them less likely to attend. <\/p>\n<p>Dr. Carole Easton OBE, chief executive of the Centre for Ageing Better, called the imbalance unacceptable.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/homebuyerrelocation.com\/?p=912\">WHO chief lands in Congo, saying Ebola outbreak \u2018can be stopped\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cUp to one in five UK cinema attendees are aged 55 and above, this age group spends hundreds of millions of pounds every year on cinema,\u201d Dr. Easton said. \u201cThe representation of older actors in major film roles is so disproportionate to the proportion of older women in the cinema-going audience, the lack of representation is insulting, frankly.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The new findings build on earlier academic work. A 2023 Centre for Ageing Better report titled \u201cCast Aside,\u201d conducted by the University of West London, found that only one in three speaking characters in nearly 50 popular films were aged 50 or over \u2014 and that female characters aged 65 and older were more than three times less likely than men of the same age to appear in British films. Women characters over 50 also spoke 14% less than their male counterparts.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Researchers also found that empowered, active, and fully realized older female characters were rare, with older women more commonly portrayed as passive, pitiable, or ridiculed for failing to act their age \u2014 and often irrelevant to the main plot.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Harriet Bailiss, co-lead of the Age Without Limits campaign, said the problem extends beyond entertainment. \u201cFor many older people who have come to question their value through internalising the ageism they see around them every day in society, this lack of representation will reinforce the idea that older people matter less as they get older,\u201d Ms. Bailiss said. \u201cAgeism is the most common form of discrimination but is still not taken seriously enough.\u201d<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><em><br \/>\n                          This article was constructed with the assistance of artificial intelligence and published by a member of The Washington Times&#8217; AI News Desk team. The contents of this report are based solely on The Washington Times&#8217; original reporting, wire services, and\/or other sources cited within the report. For more information, please read our AI policy or contact Steve Fink, Director of Artificial Intelligence, at sfink@washingtontimes.com<br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><br \/>\n                          The Washington Times AI Ethics Newsroom Committee can be reached at aispotlight@washingtontimes.com.<br \/>\n                      <\/em><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/homebuyerrelocation.com\/?p=910\">U.S. jobless claims rise to 215,000, but layoffs remain low despite Iran war uncertainty<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Actress EMMA THOMPSON on Hollywood not casting older women in leading roles: &#8220;Women are half the population and we get older. So where are the stories about us? The older we get, the more interesting we are.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>A new analysis by a British anti-ageism campaign finds that the film industry&#8217;s top-grossing movies are more likely to feature a male lead named Chris, or even a talking animal, than a woman over the age of 60, drawing renewed calls for Hollywood to address what advocates describe as a pervasive culture of age-based discrimination.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":915,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,131],"tags":[727,728,726],"class_list":["post-916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-spotlight","tag-age-without-limits","tag-centre-for-ageing-better","tag-emma-thompson"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Analysis: Hollywood more likely to cast a man named Chris or talking animal than a woman over 60 - Home Buyer Relocation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/homebuyerrelocation.com\/?p=916\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Analysis: Hollywood more likely to cast a man named Chris or talking animal than a woman over 60 - Home Buyer Relocation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Actress EMMA THOMPSON on Hollywood not casting older women in leading roles: &quot;Women are half the population and we get older. So where are the stories about us? The older we get, the more interesting we are.&quot;   A new analysis by a British anti-ageism campaign finds that the film industry&#039;s top-grossing movies are more likely to feature a male lead named Chris, or even a talking animal, than a woman over the age of 60, drawing renewed calls for Hollywood to address what advocates describe as a pervasive culture of age-based discrimination.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/homebuyerrelocation.com\/?p=916\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Home Buyer Relocation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-31T11:09:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/homebuyerrelocation.com\\\/?p=916#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/homebuyerrelocation.com\\\/?p=916\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/homebuyerrelocation.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/b2ac56955b020950324cad4c6c27b42a\"},\"headline\":\"Analysis: Hollywood more likely to cast a man named Chris or talking animal than a woman over 60\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-31T11:09:31+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/homebuyerrelocation.com\\\/?p=916\"},\"wordCount\":792,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/homebuyerrelocation.com\\\/?p=916#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/homebuyerrelocation.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/93a0797e656efd5529c37a7e723641d9.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Age Without Limits\",\"Centre for Ageing Better\",\"Emma Thompson\"],\"articleSection\":[\"News\",\"Spotlight\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/homebuyerrelocation.com\\\/?p=916#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/homebuyerrelocation.com\\\/?p=916\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/homebuyerrelocation.com\\\/?p=916\",\"name\":\"Analysis: Hollywood more likely to cast a man named Chris or talking animal than a woman over 60 - 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