Hollywood is horrible to aging women, broadly, but it’s particularly horrible for women whose images are rooted in a youthful form of themselves. It’s not just Lindsay Lohan, in other words, who has to struggle with expectations pinned to a much-younger version of herself. That’s why Julia Roberts and Reese Witherspoon keep playing variations on the same roles, praised for their apparent agelessness, and why Demi Moore and Nicole Kidman struggle to reinvigorate their stardom. Indeed, the most flattering form of praise for a longtime female star isn’t “Look at their varied and complex career!” but “[Insert Star Here] Doesn’t Age!” For Zellweger, whose stardom was forged in her late twenties, that’s simply not an option — especially without the sort of roles, television- or film-based, that would help audiences work through that transition. The last time we really “saw” her, she was that old image. Now she’s labeled a distortion of it, even though, in truth, it’s society’s reaction that’s the dark mirror of our expectations — not Zellweger’s still beautiful face.
Posted on: Wed, 22 Oct 2014 20:25:17 +0000
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