Is turning 40 fatal for actresses in Hollywood? Ask that question—one of the most highly charged inquiries you can make in the film industry—and you'll get a two-part answer. Definitely no—when you're talking about Susan Sarandon, Anjelica Huston, Glenn Close, or Sigourney Weaver. Just possibly yes—if you mean Jessica Lange, Sissy Spacek, Sally Field, or Diane Keaton.
Why some over-40 actresses have thriving careers while the others are fading is as controversial as the subject of age itself. The conventional wisdom claims that the men who run the business scorn women much older than Demi Moore and Jodie Foster, both 30, and prefer those around the age of Julia Roberts, 25, or Uma Thurman, 23, blithely pairing them with relative oldsters like Nick Nolte or Robert De Niro.
The double-standard theory, coupled with a dearth of roles for women over 40, is the easiest explanation for why some of the hottest actresses of the early '80s—such as Lange, Field, Spacek, Meryl Streep, and Jane Fonda—have almost disappeared. Since 1990, Field has been in only two movies, Soapdish and the flop Not Without My Daughter; this year, she was the voice of Sassy the cat in Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey. And after 1986's unsuccessful 'night, Mother, Spacek all but vanished for four years. She resurfaced in 1990's The Long Walk Home, 1991's barely seen Hard Promises, and had a small role in JFK.
But while valid up to a point, the older-actress-as-victim-of-male-studio- execs theory has some holes. It hardly explains Susan Sarandon's powerhouse career, the successes of the sought-after Huston and Close, or why such veterans as Mary McDonnell, Kathy Bates, and Mercedes Ruehl didn't make it big until they neared 40.
Casting directors, producers, and agents, especially women, bristle at the politically incorrect notion that older actresses share the blame for their fall from the top of the Hollywood heap. They point out that as actresses age and their priorities change, they may not even want to stay at the apex. Yet many in the industry admit that certain career moves are better than others—call it the Smart Women, Foolish Choices theory. Some potential wrong turns? Moving somewhere remote (i.e., anywhere but New York or L.A.); resisting new kinds of roles; making too many boutique films (like Spacek's Violets Are Blue... or Lange's Music Box).
''Sissy and Jessica chose to go live in Virginia. Was that the best thing?'' asks one producer. ''Jessica doesn't get offered that much. I've fought for Diane Keaton many times and I meet with such resistance at the studios. She didn't seem to want to break with the same persona.''
Writer-director James Toback (The Pick-up Artist) believes that actresses fail to keep their ambition ''at the same relentless level'' as actors, but others suggest that's blaming the victim. ''It's incredibly hard to sustain a career over a 20-year period,'' says one female agent. ''I think it's grossly unfair to label women like this just because they aren't as big as they once were. Clint Eastwood went through a period when he couldn't get across the street. Some of these actresses are very bright women who choose not to raise their children in Hollywood and they pay a price. That's not to say they won't be hot again.''
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