Hail, Gabrielle Carteris, SAG-AFTRA President & former 30-something TV teen
IMDB is great for us. We use it to answer pivotal questions like, “who is that guy in that thing I’m watching, and where have I seen him before?” But IMDB might not be so great for (especially female) actors, who could get denied roles based on age before they ever have a chance to audition. And now, a former non-teen star of a teen show is speaking out about ageism. And oh yeah, she’s also the President of Screen Actors Guild-AFTRA.
Our story begins a long time ago. Once upon a time, oh people under 30-something, there was a show about teenagers in Beverly Hills. Their zip code (a zip code is something that used to help “letters” — a.k.a. “old email” — get to its proper destination) was 90210.
There were twins, just moved from Minnesota, and their midwestern values coming into contrast with (and eventually mostly being consumed by) superficial wealthy attitudes and people. (Let’s wish Shannen Doherty, who played Brenda Walsh — and gave rise to subject matter for another post — a speedy recovery as she battles breast cancer.) There was the resident richie troublemaker, who grew up to slay the mighty Sharknadoes and meet me at a conference; the squinty bad boy who went on to make bad movies, the rich girl trying to undo her damaged sexual reputation. There was Donna Martin, who — yes — graduated, possibly because her dad was the executive producer of the show. There was a hangout spot called The Peach Pit (Nat!!!) that was modeled on a restaurant in LA called the Apple Pan. (I just learned that this week.) There were even some “very special episodes,” including one with a character killed by accidental gunfire and one with Chandler Bing and his eyebrows being threatened by depression and suicidal ideation.
But most importantly, the actors on this show were all playing younger than they were — the least-teenagery teenager of them all was Gabrielle Carteris, who — in addition to representing poverty, overachievers, nerds just hoping their guy friends would notice them, journalists and Jews at the fictional West Beverly High — was 29 when she was cast as a 16-year-old. (Kudos.)
And now, at age 55 (don’t blame me for mentioning it, it’s still in her IMDB profile) and the President of the Screen Actors Guild-AFTRA (still overachieving!), Carteris is supporting “a bill that would require casting services and databases to remove actors’ birthdays when requested by the actor.” (EW)
In a guest column in The Hollywood Reporter, Carteris wrote:
It is time to stop the ageism that permeates Hollywood’s casting process. This problem exists for all performers, but most distinctly for women. Performers create characters and often employ illusion to do so. That’s acting.
She points out that her career-making role on “90210” would never have happened today — the jig would have been up the second they looked her up online, and she’d have never had the chance.
According to the bill itself:
This bill would prohibit a commercial online entertainment employment service provider that enters into a contractual agreement to provide specified employment services to an individual paid subscriber from publishing information about the subscriber’s age in an online profile of the subscriber and would require the provider, within 5 days, to remove from public view in an online profile of the subscriber certain information regarding the subscriber’s age on any companion Internet Web site under the provider’s control if requested by the subscriber.
To summarize, IMDB (and other services that help you settle bets as to whether a certain celeb is older or younger than you) can be prevented from publishing that subscriber’s age at the request of the subscriber. (You can read the full text of the bill here. If you’re the kind of overachiever who needs to read the full text of the bill. That would be SO Andrea Zuckerman of you.)
Even if the bill passes, there will still be people whose ages will be available to the internet industrious. (Ever Googled an ex? Of course you have, you liars.) And of course, there are people who age out of certain roles no matter how beautiful they are: Angelina Jolie will probably never be cast as as Little Orphan Annie. She will probably continue to get work. But as she ages, the roles will be different. And even for someone of her reputation, there may be fewer of them. (At some point, might a studio determine that she’s too old to play opposite Brad Pitt? Not entirely out of the question, some would say.)
As Carteris points out, this ruling may have an impact is on the availability of roles for women, especially for women over a certain age, especially opposite men who are older.
I’m not “in Hollywood” per se, so this doesn’t affect me personally. But as a passionate consumer of TV and film, the decreasing visibility of women “of a certain age” (as the men of that age stick around), and the age gap between leading men and their leading ladies has been bothering me for a while.
Let’s take Chris Noth as an example of the latter. If you’re like me, you were pissed at the way he treated Carrie Bradshaw for all those years, but let’s try to not let our personal feelings get in the way. In his last three big roles, here are the actresses he was cast opposite: SJP (Sex & the City), born 1965 . Julianna Margulies (The Good Wife), born 1966. And now Moran Atias (Tyrant), born 1981. Noth, for the record: born 1954, making the age difference (look at me! doing age math!) 11 years for SJP, 12 for Alicia Florrick and 27 for the First Lady of Abuddin.
What would it look like if Chris Noth were cast opposite a woman his own age? Consider Ellen Barkin. Lorraine Bracco. Oprah Winfrey. Katey Sagal. Kathleen Turner. Or Rene Russo, most recently cast as a love interest for Robert de Niro, born in 1943. (That one’s an 11-year-gap, not terrible, Hollywood.)
The point — aside from “let’s cast more mature women because those actresses are awesome” — is, we shouldn’t judge people by their ages, or let an age, basically nuthin’ but a number, dictate our expectations of people.
This is an especially big challenge for Hollywood, which often lets its wackadoodle parameters of beauty guide its perception of talent or ability or general value. But if Hollywood can set different parameters for casting, and let people do their best, act the roles they connect to, be as young as they feel or as spry as their bodies will permit them to be, perhaps Hollywood, would look a bit different. And even if the difference isn’t immediately apparent — these things take a while to trickle down — maybe society could be a little bit kinder to all of us.
As Carteris noted in her Hollywood Reporter piece:
I was allowed the opportunity to create a signature character on an iconic television show. That changed the trajectory of my life and career, and I am forever grateful. Enacting this law in California will benefit performers around the country and media consumers who want to see movie and television roles played by the very best people for the job.
Whether we look old for our age or young for our age (or look our actual age) isn’t the point. Let us do what we can for as long as we can, and don’t judge us by the numbers.
So, all hail Gabrielle Carteris. Here’s hoping that future articles lead less often with “former teen star” and more with “President, SAG-AFTRA.”
