: Studies indicate that while characters over 50 make up about 20% of on-screen roles, women over 50 account for only 5% of all characters.

The 1980s and 1990s were particularly brutal. The "buddy comedy" and the action blockbuster marginalized women over 35. A 2019 study by the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative at USC found that in the top 100 grossing films from 2007 to 2018, only 11% of speaking characters were women over 40. For men, that number was 39%. The message was subliminally clear: a man’s story continues; a woman’s story ends at the altar or the nursery.

Mature actresses today are refusing to play by the old rules. They are taking on roles that are violent, sexual, vulnerable, and villainous. Consider the revolution: