POSTED April 10 2012
Angelina, Charlize and Julia: The Three Ages of Women
Jolie as Maleficent
With Julia Roberts and Charlize Theron respectively as the Evil Queens in Mirror, Mirror and Snow White and the Huntsman and now Angelina Jolie attached to play the Evil Queen in Maleficent, a live-action Sleeping Beauty, now it’s official. The three ages of a Hollywood actress are: Babe, Evil Queen and The Iron Lady.
When Disney animators created the animated Maleficent for Sleeping Beauty in 1959, they were inspired by the Kabuki-mask face of Joan Crawford.
What gives? I understand the primal significance of fairy tales, but… Are male actors of a certain age (that would be pushing 40 or just over) equally pigeonholed by their advancing years?
Actually, I think HW suits are tapping into thr male fantasy of seeing some of the hottest women on the planet in the dominatrix role. Especially Angelina and Charlize..and dont thinjk they won’t play the role to the hilt. Disney had a major evil woman thing in his films. I’ll tell you one thing-you put Angelina and Cherlize in evil domme mode, and you have lots of guys sneaking into the theaters. Like Pauline used to say “people use the movies lots of reasons beyond entertainment.” Jus sayin’.
I honestly don’t think these three female stars are being pigeonholed here; rather that they’re the best actors available who might suit this (probably less than stellar, but still expensive-to-produce and financially risky) material. You see far more movies than I do, but from my “average consumer” seat I feel mainstream cinema is really in a bad way. That being said, women over a certain age will continue simply to fade away (or if they’re talented and lucky, show up in formulaic but enjoyable Lifetime Movie dramas) and male actors who are phoning it in will continue to coast. Curtis
[…] Rickey says in Angelina, Charlize and Julia: the Three Ages of Women that with news of Jolie playing "Maleficent" it's […]