Thursday, October 20, 2011
Given Age Discrimination, Should Actors Be Allowed To Lie About Their Ages?
ThinkProgress: This is one of those situations where my instincts as a journalist, and my instincts as an advocate for feminism in entertainment come into conflict. An actress is suing the Internet Movie Database for publishing her true age on the grounds that discrimination against actresses over 40 is so pervasive that revealing her age would complicate her efforts to find future employment.
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11 comments:
You can lie about whatever you want to lie about, but IMDb is a resource. As a resource, it is their duty to provide accurate information. Though it might bother her, I can't see her having any real legal rights here. They're publishing the truth. I suppose one could argue that they're publishing her private information, but even that's stretching it.
That being said, I'm sure there is a great deal of age discrimination in the acting world. Some parts call for beautiful people, and some parts don't. The difference is that its a lot easier to make someone look like they've aged 20 years and gained 30 pounds onstage than it is the other way around.
I'm with Pia on this one, but I still understand where the actress is coming from. A lot of performers choose to list a range of ages they feel they can play on their resumé instead of their age because that says more about them and their acting abilities than the number itself. However, Wikipedia has been listing real dates of birth for as long as I can remember, so it's not like the information isn't accessible if people want to find it. As the writer said, it really is more important to work on not discriminating by age than leaving gaps in our databases.
It is strange that agencies even care about an actor's actual age, since all that should matter is the age they can look. If actors want to keep information on their age private, I don't see why this would be a problem. I think that if the actor wishes to keep that private, it is their right to have the information removed from IMDb, and not necessarily replace it with a false age, but keep it blank. I agree with what Becca has said: many actors just put their age range that they can play, and since that is sufficient for their profession, that should be an acceptable amount of information to put online.
I think that you can say that it should not matter on their age if an actor should be hired or not, because it shouldnt, but it does. Yes if the actor is good enough for the part, then it should really only depend on whether or not they can be made to look the part. However, there comes a point regardless of how old you are, and how good of an actor you are that you will switch from playing the child to the parent, or the parent to the grandparent. Interestingly enough I know of one case in particular where it was the other way around. When Mila Kunis first auditioned for 'That 70's Show', which could be considered the role that people really got to know her, she lied and said she was 18 when she was actually 15. In a case like that where someone has the talent to back it up, I dont think it matters. Likewise, if an older actor can play a multitude of roles because they are that good. Then they should have no problem taking that older role. It is not right, Im not saying that. But it is how it is and it human nature to an extent.
I don't see the case considering IMBd is often wrong. I wouldn't trust it as a "resource" anymore than I would a magazine. I don't think anyone would deny her a job because she put 36 on an application while it says 42 on IMBd. Hopefully it will take more than a number on a website to deter you from working. And I wonder where they got the information. That is where the court might get involved. If they just figured that her mom is around that age and her sister is around that age so she must be 42, and they posted it, I don't think that is an infringement of rights. Especially since, as a celebrity, she's probably had worse things published. She probably should have kept her mouth and just contacted the site asking for it to be taken down or changed to her fake age. I bet she could have leaked something fake to a reporter making sure it was believed enough to change the database. She can lie about whatever she wants.
There are lots of things that I find odd about our industry, the fact that age matters was not one of them until now. From a technical standpoint, age tends (key word tends) to in some ways equal more experience and therefore a better crew member. I can't remember a time that I heard someone complain about the age of a person so long as it was not a factor in there ability to work. While I get that the idea actor would age to somewhere around 25 and then stay that way until death unless sudden aging was required, the idea that age is a major factor in hiring in many ways baffles me.
I do not think that that the right question is being asked here. I think the question should be whether or not an actors listed age should matter.
I also think that if someone who is casting is unable to get around a number that represents their biological age, there is a problem. I also think that if an actor cannot demonstrate their diversity of what they can play, there is also a problem.
I agree with the reporter that it is important to correct the discrimination being among the employment of older actresses, and that publishing true ages on IMDB is important to continue this effort. However, if I were an older actress, with years of experience and talent under my belt and was unable to find work because of my age, I would ask that society cut me some slack and let me be private about my true age. Sadly, it is a matter of fact that as a society we are visually pleased by youth. And if I think about it, there are older actresses I respect more than younger ones. However, in an industry where vanity take front seat, there need to be some bending of the rules. I’m not implying that actresses should lie; I’m suggesting that the whole truth need not be told. It isn’t a battle worth fighting anyway. Maybe I’m being more practical than vain in this instance, but I think getting employed in today’s day and age is far more important than standing up for feminism through this issue.
I highly doubt that this actress has a legal leg to stand on, but I think IMDB should at least consider her point of view before deciding whether or not to leave her age on her page. There are not a lot of great roles for women in Hollywood, and it is even harder for older women to have sustainable careers.
Other people have made the point that it should only matter how an actor looks and not her actual age, but the point is that when people find out someone's actual age, their perception of that person changes. This change of perception could very well effect how much work this actress gets.
I think that actors should be able to say that they don't want their age published on IMDB, and IMDB should comply. If you don't want that information out there about you, you should be able to do something about it. It's really sad that there is so much age discrimination when it comes to casting, especially because older more experienced actors will probably be able to bring more to a project. All that really matters is that someone can look and play the part. If someone is 40, but they can pass for 30, let's say, why does their real age matter?
It seems like the two biggest issues here, age discrimination and privacy on the internet, can be problematic for anyone but are consistently more problematic for actors since they are in the public eye. Age discrimination is a huge issue in the industry and in theory I would say that actors should be able to choose whether or not to keep their age public. I would also say that actors should be able to have control over what factual information about them is on the internet, but that's just unrealistic - they just seem to have to surrender those basic privileges. It feels unfair, but I see no reasonable solution. The only solution is to work on age discrimination which has to happen desperately anyway.
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