British audiences find sex scenes between older people “repulsive”, the actor Amanda Redman has said, warning that sexism is rife in the way women over 50 are perceived.
Redman said that, while American audiences were comfortable with intimacy between older leads, the UK was squeamish about it.
“I was thinking about the fact that the Americans seem less frightened of intimacy between older couples,” she told the Radio Times.
“I’m watching Madam Secretary and the two leads are in their late 50s and have a really healthy sexual relationship. And it’s not repulsive. We in Britain tend to shy away from that. There’s ageism involved there.”
The 62-year-old, known for her roles in TV programmes including New Tricks and At Home with the Braithwaites – as well as the movie Sexy Beast – said women were particularly negatively viewed as they aged.
“There are lots of actresses in their 50s who are wonderful, and they are nomads. Seriously. The men have a much easier time of it. They just do. And that makes me cross.”
Her comments echo persistent concerns over women being given fewer roles in television and films as they age, and facing sexist treatment.
Recent studies have found that more scripts feature prominent female cast members, with one US report finding that the proportion of movies to feature female protagonists had risen from 31% to 40%.
But older women still report winning fewer and fewer parts, while older men continue to do well.
Redman said that, in an inversion of the plot of New Tricks, the actor Sheila Hancock had recently said to her: “Can you imagine pitching a series to the BBC in which there’s three old, female police officers and we’ve been brought out of retirement to work with a hot young guy who’s still a serving police officer?” Hancock said she responded: “Not a chance.”
Redman also described a case of harassment earlier in her career – an example of the kind of incident she had faced “every day”. In an audition for a BBC show, she “walked in and the guy said: ‘Those purple velvet jeans look lovely on you, but I think they’d look better on the floor, would you take them off please?’
“I didn’t take them off, obviously. I burst into tears and I ran. I remember exactly who it was, but I won’t be saying. That was the norm then. I was 22 as well – a baby, really.”
Redman said her remaining ambitions as an actor included playing Cleopatra in Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra. “It was my audition speech for drama school and now I’m the right age,” she said. |”Shakespeare wrote fantastically well for women.”
