“There is a sense in society that you should feel ashamed for being old,” Hollywood icon Sally Field said recently, “and I realized what a crock that is.”
The two-time Oscar winner was discussing the wisdom of influential women over 70 with fellow acting icon Julia Louis-Dreyfus for the latter’s award-winning “Wiser Than Me” podcast.
The “Smokey and the Bandit” and “Forrest Gump” star, 77, explained it wasn’t until recently that she was able to give herself credit for her illustrious acting career, AARP reported. She said that, although she feels she’s on more solid ground than ever, she knows the entertainment industry doesn’t look at aging women the same way.
“Obviously, it’s awful,” she said, prompted by Louis-Dreyfus, 63, to discuss ageism in Hollywood.
“There’s just so few real stories written about women of any age, but certainly, certainly as you get older it gets less and less and less and less and less,” she added. “And it’s usually women who are looking for a man. There are so many other stories you could have told.”
According to the Centre of Ageing Better, older adults are underrepresented on screen. Roughly 29% of TV advertisements feature people 50 or older, and screen representation of older adults declined further during the pandemic.
Now, however, Field is enjoying being a grandmother of five.
“You have to get to know a whole different group of people, and they are raised by different people, so you have to know what that framework is,” she said. “And then you have to find a place that you land together. Someplace that belongs just to the two of you, and that this is what you do together, that’s just yours. Otherwise, you’re just a glorified babysitter.”
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