: Films like The Substance (starring Demi Moore) and The Last Showgirl (starring Pamela Anderson) use the physical reality of ageing as a central, raw narrative force.
: In 2025, only 4 women over 45 played leads in Hollywood's top 100 films, compared to 31 men in the same bracket.
: Much of the current progress is driven by actresses who have built their own "production empires"—such as Reese Witherspoon , Nicole Kidman , and Viola Davis —allowing them to source their own scripts and bypass traditional gatekeepers. milf over 30 thumbs
: From Jean Smart in Hacks to Shefali Shah in Delhi Crime , television is currently offering more consistent "milestone" roles than traditional cinema. (PDF) Women Over 50: The Right To Be Seen on Screen
Streaming and OTT platforms have become the "fertile ground" for mature narratives: : Films like The Substance (starring Demi Moore)
: Actresses like Nicole Kidman and Michelle Yeoh are portraying erotically charged or action-oriented leads, challenging the idea that a woman’s prime has an "expiry date".
And the winner is ... the rising generation of older female actors : From Jean Smart in Hacks to Shefali
2 Oct 2024 — * For this report, the NextFifty Initiative collaborated with. the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media to survey. * Moreover, ResearchGate