Robb S. sent along a great set of images from Vulture. Using case studies of individual leading men in Hollywood, they show that the love interests cast in their films don’t age alongside them over the course of their careers. Not convinced? Here’s nine examples and one exception. For fun, try to guess which leading man bucks the trend? I’ll embed it last.
And the exception is!
Comments 20
Agrajag — June 20, 2013
Brad Pitt also came really close. There's not really a strong trend of increasing age-difference in his movies.
ala lala — June 20, 2013
I really don't like that the y axis on their graphs are not equal across actors. It makes some graphs look distorted!
Morwen Edhelwen — June 20, 2013
I think that we should do something like this for actresses as well. We would likely see quite a difference in the age of their love interests as the get older
myblackfriendsays — June 20, 2013
interesting. on a completely unrelated note: with google reader shutting down soon, I'm moving all the blogs I read over to bloglovin'. I've noticed that they don't seem to have a working link for this blog. I can probably remember to check it everyday, but I wonder if there is a way for you all to fix it on your end?
Umlud — June 20, 2013
I'm not going to to a complete assessment, but I wonder about how the the authors selected their films. Looking at the listed films for Johnny Depp, I noticed that the list was a little ... light. There are MANY films are missing, including Benny and Joon, Arizona Dream, Ed Wood, The Astronaut's Wife and many others. While it's true that most of Depp's characters' love interests are younger, the fact that so many films with a strong personal relationship aspect are not included is... odd.
sjcottrell — June 21, 2013
Whenever I see discussions of the relative ages of actors vs. actresses, I am reminded of a discussion where Sally Field noted that in six years, she had gone from playing Tom Hank's love interest to playing his mother. In the 1988 movie Punchline, she was 42 and he was 32. In 1994, for Forrest Gump, she was 48 and he was 38. No deep analysis, just a little tidbit from the back of the brain.
..
And I do have to agree that the graphs seem a little... less than professional. Given the many discussions we've had on this site about representing data, I would have expected at least a note in the main article about that.
IN HOLLYWOOD, LEADING MEN GET OLDER; LOVE INTERESTS DON’T | Welcome to the Doctor's Office — June 21, 2013
[...] from SocImages [...]
Lovely Links: 6/28/13 — June 28, 2013
[...] Filed under We Knew This Already But Graphs Are Fun, a look at how Hollywood’s leading men get older, but somehow the women who play their love interests do not. [...]
Someone — June 30, 2013
Given only a few of each actor's films are studied here and the others are not mentionned these graphics are meaningless ( i realized it reading harrison ford's one which is far from being complete). On top of that keira knightley is not depp's girlfriens in the pirates of the carraibeans movies ...
While you cannt deny hollywood often shows men with younger women that study is bullsh**.
disconap — September 26, 2013
The author should probably take a statistics class, as Washington's chart is the ONLY example of their thesis, the rest actually directly contradict it.
Sociopress.cz » Vyretušovaná: Multiplicita standardů mužské a ženské krásy — September 27, 2013
[...] objekty jejich zájmu tento vývoj nekopírují (série velmi přesvědčivých grafů zde – http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2013/06/20/in-hollywood-leading-men-get-older-love-interests-do...). Díky @sphericalfruit teď máme v ruce jeden příklad za všechny. Prohlédněte si [...]
The Age of Hollywood: A Look at May-December Movies | Dark Pines Media — December 30, 2018
[…] men get to age while the media expects most leading women to stay forever young. This can lead to age gaps on screen that mirror uncomfortable patterns of gendered power in […]
A2Bookmarks Norway — August 15, 2024
Lisa Wade, PhD, highlights a revealing trend in Hollywood where leading men age, but their on-screen love interests do not. This phenomenon is illustrated through a series of images from Vulture showing various leading men whose romantic counterparts remain significantly younger throughout their careers. The post invites readers to guess which leading man defies this trend, adding an interactive element to the discussion about age and gender in Hollywood.
For those interested in exploring more about media representation and related topics, joining top social bookmarking websites in Norway can provide access to valuable resources and discussions. These platforms offer a space to engage with content on similar subjects and connect with others interested in media studies.