Hollywood’s Worst Mother-Son Age Differences
Everyone knows that Hollywood is a difficult place to be a middle-aged woman who’s not Meryl Streep. While male stars can be cast as action heroes with 20-something love interests well into their 50s (looking at you, Tom Cruise), women are boxed into smaller roles as they age — and eventually, even the biggest female stars can end up playing the mother of a leading man who’s almost the same age as they are. The latest actress to fall into this trap is Nicole Kidman, who at a well-preserved 49 years of age is in talks to play the mother of Jason Momoa, 37, in Aquaman. (That news broke yesterday along with the casting of The Get Down star Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as villain Black Manta.) Here are six other egregious examples of movie moms who couldn’t possibly have given birth to their movie sons.
Sally Field and Tom Hanks, Forrest Gump (1994)
Age difference: 10 years
Granted, Field starts out as the more realistic mother to a young Forrest and wears aging makeup when Hanks takes over. That doesn’t change the fact that six years earlier, Field was playing Hanks’s love interest in the comedy Punchline.
Angela Lansbury and Laurence Harvey, The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
Age difference: 3 years
Lansbury has always been an actress whose age is tough to pinpoint. But as the manipulative mother in this classic political thriller, the 37-year-old actress was dangerously close in age to her onscreen son.
Angelina Jolie and Colin Farrell, Alexander (2004)
Age difference: 1 year
Jolie wasn’t even 30 when she was cast as the mother of leading man Farrell, 28, in this infamous historical drama (which featured plenty of incestuous sexual tension).
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Winona Ryder and Zachary Quinto, Star Trek (2009)
Age difference: 6 years
Vulcans and humans might age differently in the Star Trek universe, but until J.J. Abrams relaunched the franchise, Spock’s mother had always been a realistically older woman.
Melissa Leo and Mark Wahlberg, The Fighter (2010)
Age difference: 11 years
When Leo was offered the opportunity to play the mother of boxers Micky Ward and Dicky Eklund, played by Wahlberg and Christian Bale, her reasonable first question for director David O. Russell was, “Aren’t I too young?” At least she got an Oscar for her efforts.
Rachel Griffiths and Johnny Depp, Blow (2001)
Age difference: 5 years … younger
Lots of crimes are committed in Ted Demme’s drug-dealer biopic, but the biggest one of all is that Six Feet Under star Griffiths, who played Depp’s mother, is five years younger than him.
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