Kim Cattrall Speaks Out About Ageism In Hollywood

Actress Kim Cattrall has revealed that she “does not depend on Hollywood for jobs anymore.”

Cattrall told BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire that she doesn’t want to be perceived as “a very, very older woman” at the age of 60.

“I’m not ready to play someone who is grotesque. Either from being thought of as a very, very older woman, at 60-61 this year, which I’m not, and I don’t feel that way. Sixty now is different to my mother’s 60 and I’ve had really the advantage of working out and educating myself further and working on so many things that have challenged me mentally and physically and demanded me to be youthful in a way.”

She continued: “I just feel like there are very few roles to begin with, in the category of someone who is wanting to be young in a very desperate way or someone who has given up.”

“That’s why I don’t depend on Hollywood for jobs anymore. That’s why I became an executive producer,” Cattrall said, who served as an executive producer on her latest project, “Sensitive Skin”.

Derbyshire asked if Cattrall is saying that she doesn’t “feel the pressure to look younger because you’re not playing that game?”

Cattrall responded, “I don’t feel that pressure. If I want to look a certain way then that’s for my satisfaction. I don’t do it because of my work, I do it because that makes me feel good.”

When asked if she can give some examples of ageism that she’s come across, Cattrall revealed that “it starts in a little bit of a whisper.”

“‘Can she come in and have a meeting, we just want to see what she looks like. We want to see her skin, where she’s at.’ And they really just want to see… basically,” Cattrall said.

The “Sex and the City” actress said that “it’s a polite way” of seeing what she looks like.

Cattrall has called out Hollywood before for not telling the stories of older women and focusing on projects they think will generate the most revenue.

She said she was no longer being offered saucy roles similar to her former “Sex and the City” character, Samantha Jones.

“At 35, it seems women reach their ‘expiration date’ in Hollywood,” the actress revealed in an interview with ABC last January.

Countless celebrities, including Meryl Streep, Kathy Griffin and Julianne Moore, have spoken out about ageism in Hollywood.

In an interview with Deadline last summer, Griffin said that she’s sick and tired of hearing that the networks need to target “younger eyeballs.”

The comedian says she has been hearing ageist comments her entire professional career. “I’ve been hearing it since I was 30, from managers, agents, studio heads and network executives. I’m sure I heard it in the last year,” the two-time Emmy winner said.

She added that prime time network television is a desert for female actors of a certain age. “There seems to be a quota for women my age… Often the networks have maybe one woman who’s my age. I’m getting the feeling that if they have one woman who’s 55, they say, ‘OK, we’re done.’”