debor009

--> Last week I got together with a group of local actresses to discuss career issues, and one of the topics that came up was how we get stereotyped into certain roles. Some of us had brought our headshots along with a list of our last six bookings, and the niche each of us filled was pretty clear: “wholesome mom,” “woman on the edge,” “intimidating authority figure,” and so on. A stereotype isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it’s common among actors for the roles we book to run against the image we have of ourselves. One actress friend books a lot of blue-collar "lady plumber" roles, but feels frustrated she’s not playing executives and attorneys. I’m typically wearing a suit or upscale casual clothes in what I book, but long to play hardscrabble, Depression-era types. (High drama!) Stereotypes are your bread-and-butter and can help get you in the door on a big budget film or TV project. That’s why your headshot folder should always have at least one photo that re...

Scarlett Johansson was named Esquire magazine's "Sexiest Woman Alive" a few weeks ago (for the second time).  Here's what she said: "The 28-year-old cover star tells the magazine that getting older isn't all fun and games for a woman in Hollywood (shame on you for thinking it was), explaining how 'pretty soon the roles you're offered are all mothers. Then they just sort of stop."  Full coverage in the Mirror here . Well, it occurs to me that if an actress projects largely her sexuality onscreen - i.e. the depth of her cleavage or the perfect roundness of her bum - then the bloom really is starting to go off the rose at 28.  But why does Hollywood do that to women? Playing a "cougar" Marion Cotillard tore up the screen in La Vie en Rose , a 2007 French biopic about the legendary Edith Piaf.  She was wonderful. Yet in the 2010 Warner Brothers Sci-Fi film Inception she is reduced to little more than an artfully positioned potted plant. ...

A big obstacle for actresses of a certain age (mine, for example) is too often being relegated to roles as disempowered characters, even though the world reflects a very different reality and the majority of casting agents (and now many directors and producers) are women. You would think that they would make the connection that if a 55-year-old man can play the "powerful person in charge," so can a 55-year-old woman. Not so. If a woman is cast as a district attorney, for example, she'll more often be 27 and chosen for reasons other than her credibility as a D.A. (Which brings to mind Danny DeVito in Norman Jewison's 1991 Other People's Money , opposite Penelope Ann Miller as the D.A. and his love interest. I think Norman Jewison is terrific, as are both actors, but Miller looked like she was 12 at the time and, yes, the pairing was cringe-worthy.) E. Katherine Kerr as Sen. Grace Comisky In acting, what I see being offered to older actresses are roles as little o...