A number of actresses have pushed back against Hollywood's enraging combination of sexism and ageism, and for good reason. Elizabeth Banks was deemed too old to play Mary Jane in Spider-Man at 28 even though lead actor Tobey Maguire was 27. Maggie Gyllenhaal wasn't considered eligible to play a 55-year-old man's love interest at age 37.
Beverly Hills 90210 star Gabrielle Carteris has proposed a solution that could end casting decisions like this: by having casting directors stop looking at actors' ages.
Carteris, also president of the SAG-AFTRA, wrote in The Hollywood Reporter that she wouldn't have gotten her 90210 role if sites like IMDB existed back when she auditioned. When she was cast as a 16-year-old, the casting directors didn't know she was 29. And she believes actresses don't have such opportunities today.
"This problem exists for all performers, but most distinctly for women," she wrote.
So, she's advocating a bill in California called AB 1687 that would remove ages from casting sites. It's passed in both houses and just needs Governor Jerry Brown's approval to become law.
Her op-ed urges readers to ask Gov. Brown to sign the bill. "Enacting this law in California," she writes, "will benefit performers around the country and media consumers who want to see movie and television roles played by the very best people for the job."
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