50 AND FABULOUS
CALLING IT A
trend may be overly optimistic. But in the seven years since Amy Schumer’s brilliantly satirical and viral “Last F-kable Day” skit – about A-list Hollywood actresses being forcibly aged out of babe roles and into mother-in-law parts – 50-plus women have been turning up on screens as vibrant, hip and, yes, palpably sexual beings.
Sure, there have always been outliers in casting grown women: Meryl Streep in The Bridges of Madison County, Julianne Moore in Gloria Bell and anything starring Diane Keaton. But a handful of incoming titles suggest a reckoning is underway.
The recent Sex and the City reboot, And Just Like That…, sparked a tsunami of online chatter about women aged 50 who look 50 and stylish. Now, from acclaimed actress, writer and director Valerie Buhagiar, comes Carmen, a lovely Canadian-Maltese co-production starring English actress Natascha McElhone as a smoking-hot 50-something who, after years of serving as her brother’s maid, discovers herself – and love, or something like it – with a younger man. It opens in Canadian theatres this spring.
“As an actress in my 50s, I no longer get to have sex or kill anyone on screen,” Buhagiar cracks. “We’ve become invisible and most of the time I don’t know where I fit in or what I should do next. So creating characters that figure it out and arch into freedom is uplifting and inspiring. That’s what I was doing with Carmen.”
Men in midlife are seeing authentic representation on screen, too. Filmmaker Martin Edralin’s gently comedic drama and feature debut, Islands – about a 50-ish Filipino Canadian man who, after years of devoted parental care, finally puts romance on the agenda – won the audience choice award at the Reel Asian International Film Festival last fall, confirming the resonance of its lead, played by Rogelio Balagtas. It also opens in Canadian theatres this spring. “The climate,” says Buhagiar, “is slowly changing.”