Dakota Johnson Calls Out ‘Brutal’ Ageism in Hollywood
Dakota Johnson, her grandmother Tippi Hedren, and her mother, Melanie Griffith. (Photo: Getty Images)
Actress Dakota Johnson had a phenomenal breakout year in 2015 starring Anastasia Steele on Fifty Shades of Grey. But while Johnson is an “it” girl who is gracing the cover of February Vogue UK, she’s also speaking out against the “f***ing brutal” film industry for being ageist against female actresses. Johnson cites her mother, Melanie Griffith, age 58, and grandmother Tippi Hedren, age 85, as examples of older women who no longer can get work in the industry.
“Why isn’t my mother in the movies? She’s an extraordinary actress. Why isn’t my grandmother in the movies? This industry is f***ing brutal,” Johnson told Vogue UK. Hedren, appeared as a model on two Life covers before making her big-screen debut in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 horror film The Birds, and Griffith was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the 1988 romantic comedy Working Girl. In December 2015, Griffith posted an unfiltered selfie of herself — with tousled big hair and heavy eye makeup — on Instagram: “Here ya go. Unfiltered. I’m 58. And I’m in Hawaii Five O playing Scott Caan’s mom,” she captioned the photo. “Go ahead…Say some more mean things. Merry Christmas.”
Dakota Johnson on the February 2016 cover of Vogue UK. (Photo: Alasdair McLellan for Vogue UK)
Johnson has a point. Aging in Hollywood usually means a dwindling career for an actress once she hits a certain age. But that’s not the case for men. Look how 73-year-old Harrison Ford is still celebrated as Han Solo on Star Wars: The Force Awakens while his Jedi counterpart, 59-year-old Carrie Fisher, is being blasted on social media for “not aging well.” According to actress Anne Hathaway, it starts early. Hathaway told Glamour UK that at age 32, she is already losing parts to actresses in their 20s — but that she is accepting the situation. “I can’t complain about it, because I benefited from it. When I was in my early 20s, parts would be written for women in their 50s, and I would get them,” she said. “And now I’m in my early 30s, and I’m like, ‘Why did that 24-year-old get that part?’ I was that 24 year old once. I can’t be upset about it, it’s the way things are.”
Johnson, at age 26 and as the third generation of an iconic female Hollywood dynasty, is calling out the industry, but it probably won’t change anything. “No matter how tough you are, sometimes there’s the feeling of not being wanted. It’s absurd and cutthroat,” she said. Currently, Johnson is busy promoting her new film, Black Mass, in which she stars alongside Johnny Depp, but she isn’t without reservations about the industry: “Whenever I have downtime, I’m unsure that I will ever work again,” she said.
Related:
Carrie Fisher: Youth and Beauty Aren’t Accomplishments
