Analysis: Hollywood more likely to cast a man named Chris or talking animal than a woman over 60

A new analysis by a British anti-ageism campaign finds that the film industry’s top-grossing movies are more likely to feature a male lead named Chris — or even a talking animal — than a woman over the age of 60, drawing renewed calls for Hollywood to address what advocates describe as a pervasive culture of age-based discrimination.

Among the 100 highest-grossing films at the United Kingdom box office for 2023, 2024, and 2025, six featured a lead actor named Chris, compared to just five featuring women over 60 in a lead role, according to the Age Without Limits campaign, backed by the Centre for Ageing Better. The same analysis found that films are four times more likely to feature a talking animal in the lead role than a female actor over the age of 60.

The five films from the past three years that starred a woman over 60 were Jennifer Saunders in “Allelujah,” Nia Vardalos in “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3,” Diane Keaton in “Book Club: The Next Chapter,” Demi Moore in “The Substance” and Jamie Lee Curtis in “Freakier Friday.”

Oscar-winning actress Emma Thompson lent her voice to the campaign, arguing that the industry has failed to reflect the full breadth of human experience.

“Women are half the population and we get older,” Ms. Thompson said in a statement to Age Without Limits. “So where are the stories about us? The older we get, the more interesting we are. I want to see more films centre ageing women, we are compelling, relatable, and overdue for centre stage. Older women don’t need permission to exist on screen. They already exist in the world, cinema just needs to catch up.” 

The Age Without Limits campaign also commissioned public polling through Opinium alongside a separate body of academic research conducted by the University of West London School of Film, Media and Design. One in three respondents — 33% — said there are not enough films being made featuring female actors over 60 as lead characters, compared to roughly 1 in 30 people, or 3% who said too many such films exist. Among women surveyed, that figure rose to nearly 2 in 5, or 39%.

The polling also offered a commercial argument for change. About 1 in 6 respondents, or 16%, said they would be more likely to see a film if it starred a woman over 60 — nearly twice the share, 9%, who said it would make them less likely to attend.

Dr. Carole Easton OBE, chief executive of the Centre for Ageing Better, called the imbalance unacceptable.

“Up to one in five UK cinema attendees are aged 55 and above, this age group spends hundreds of millions of pounds every year on cinema,” Dr. Easton said. “The representation of older actors in major film roles is so disproportionate to the proportion of older women in the cinema-going audience, the lack of representation is insulting, frankly.” 

The new findings build on earlier academic work. A 2023 Centre for Ageing Better report titled “Cast Aside,” conducted by the University of West London, found that only one in three speaking characters in nearly 50 popular films were aged 50 or over — and that female characters aged 65 and older were more than three times less likely than men of the same age to appear in British films. Women characters over 50 also spoke 14% less than their male counterparts. 

Researchers also found that empowered, active, and fully realized older female characters were rare, with older women more commonly portrayed as passive, pitiable, or ridiculed for failing to act their age — and often irrelevant to the main plot. 

Harriet Bailiss, co-lead of the Age Without Limits campaign, said the problem extends beyond entertainment. “For many older people who have come to question their value through internalising the ageism they see around them every day in society, this lack of representation will reinforce the idea that older people matter less as they get older,” Ms. Bailiss said. “Ageism is the most common form of discrimination but is still not taken seriously enough.”