It's no secret that Hollywood is an unforgiving industry. Talent should, theoretically, be at the forefront, but we're all familiar with how looks do the heavy lifting more often than not.
The result is that talented women are given an unfair expiration date. Justine Bateman, actress turned filmmaker and author, is tackling women and the aging experience in her book, Face: One Square Foot of Skin. To promote the book, she invited friend and actress Carrie-Anne Moss to discuss the topic.
Carrie-Anne's career reached new heights following her role in The Matrix. While she's worked steadily since, she noticed her treatment in the industry changed markedly after she turned 40. She even shared the story of being offered a role as a grandma the very day after her 40th birthday.
Justine Bateman is talking about aging in a frank way. The actress turned filmmaker wrote a book in 2021 that looks at aging, called Face: One Square Foot of Skin. To promote the book, she asked friend Carrie-Anne Moss to moderate a conversation at New York's 92nd Street Y.
The conversation saw Justine admit that she had to avoid criticism of her aging face. "I had to get rid of this idea that my face was something that was horrible and should be fixed," she said.
Carrie-Anne could sympathize, having become famous while already in her 30s. As she approached 40, she realized attitudes toward her had changed.
"I had heard that at 40 everything changed," Carrie-Anne admitted. She was at the time preparing to return to the franchise that made her a household name with The Matrix 4.
"I didn't believe in that because I don't believe in just jumping on a thought system that I don't really align with. But literally the day after my 40th birthday, I was reading a script that had come to me and I was talking to my manager about it."
"She was like, 'Oh, no, no, no, it's not that role [you're reading for], it's the grandmother," she recalled.
"I may be exaggerating a bit, but it happened overnight. I went from being a girl to the mother to beyond the mother."
It's also another indicator of the sexism that's present in Hollywood, as male actors don't experience this same issue. Carrie-Anne recognized that, but she couldn't help but feel like she'd have to make major changes to continue in her chosen industry.
"You don't feel like you've aged much and suddenly you're seeing yourself onscreen," she said.
She also noticed that this wasn't the case in other parts of the world, the phenomena being particularly harsh in the US.
"I would look at these French and European actresses and they just had something about them that felt so confident in their own skin. I couldn't wait to be that. I strive for that. It's not easy being in this business. There's a lot of external pressure."
Justine pointed out that plastic surgery has become almost an expectation of women who don't feel they're aging gracefully.
"I find it psychotic that we have leapfrogged any conversations that we should be cutting up our faces," she said.
"It's become normalized. Time out, time out! This is not a fact. This is an idea that we can either pull in and make a belief or not. I'm like, [expletive] that."
Both women have found their empowerment. For Justine, it comes from writing and filmmaking. Carrie-Anne continues to find the right roles as an actress, the most exciting currently being her return as Trinity.
"I never thought that it would happen. It was never on my radar at all," she told Empire Magazine.
"When it was brought to me in the way that it was brought to me, with incredible depth and all of the integrity and artistry that you could imagine, I was like, 'This is a gift,'" she said.
"It was just very exciting."
