The American Scene: Plastic People of the Universe

Matt Feeney at The American Scene is rather harsh on plastic surgery :

There’s an article in the Daily Mail in which 44-year-old actress Demi Moore openly admits having undergone a half million dollars in plastic surgery. She laments, "It's been a challenging few years, being the age I am. Almost to the point where I felt like, well, they don't know what to do with me. I am not 20. Not 30.

"There aren't that many good roles for women over 40. A lot of them don't have much substance, other than being someone's mother or wife."

One of the reasons there may be especially few roles for Demi Moore is that, no, she doesn’t look 20, and she doesn’t look 30. She looks like a 44-year-old woman who’s had a half a million dollars worth of plastic surgery. Directors, I would guess, are rarely casting for that.

I don't think there's anything wrong with plastic surgery. Lots of it works quite well, and I'd happily get my favorite flaws corrected if a) I could get realistic results and b) I had more money. The problem is, women in Hollywood start getting surgery quite early, and they don't know when to quit. There's also apparently a tradeoff between young and old surgery, because your skin and muscles will only take so much. If you have breast implants when you're 22, the breast lift at 40 isn't going to take so well. Likewise, if you have a facelift at 32 to stretch out your youth roles, you shouldn't have another one at 40--but then you get to forty, and can't bear to look at yourself, and the next thing you know, you're Joan Rivers and can blink your lips.

Comments

He's right, though. There are tons of roles for women in their 40s and 50s, but they are generally looking for women who look 40 or 50. Yes, you may be somebody's mother or wife, but that in no way implies that your character or role lacks substance.

Posted by mike | September 13, 2007 2:39 PM

I think the roles for women in their 40s are looking for women who look 35, and the roles for women in their 50s want women who look 40. To play Elizabeth II in "The Queen", who was 71 when Diana died, they cast the 60-year-old Helen Mirren.

Also, they're all much more attractive than real people are, which is completely unfair.

Posted by brooksfoe | September 13, 2007 3:02 PM

By substance I think she may be implying that the vast majority of roles in major pictures these days call for a young, cute girl.

No doubt there are some rolls of substance of older women, but thinking of most of the top grossing films, they are usually younger, "prettier" girls. Meanwhile even Sean Conery was still starring in films, up until recently, when he looked way way too old in every closeup.

The writer is correct, however, that Moore has unfortuntely disqualified herself from any role other than vane, aging superstar clinging to the past.

I don't think most people would feel comfortable looking at some of the plastic works of art as a middle aged woman...at best it takes away from the content of the film and has you thinking about all that person's various operations.

Posted by sam | September 13, 2007 3:35 PM

Just because I saw this yesterday and it's still haunting me (and it's on point):

http://gofugyourself.typepad.com/go_fug_yourself/2007/09/fug-through-thi.html

Posted by Kate | September 13, 2007 3:46 PM

That number is bogus, according to the Daily Mail's own weird tally. It sounds like the majority of the money went to post-surgery trainers and the like.

Posted by Klug | September 13, 2007 4:04 PM

I'm sure Demi felt really bad 20 years ago, when she was getting all those parts at the expense of the then forty-somethings.

Posted by Patrick R. Sullivan | September 13, 2007 4:12 PM

Of course the fact that she is a terrible actress doesn't play into this at all....

Posted by Tiparillo | September 13, 2007 4:25 PM

I don't have anything to add, except that this is the last place I'd expect to see a reference to a Czech rock band.

Posted by Todd Fletcher | September 13, 2007 5:28 PM

There's an old (and fairly clean) joke about plastic surgery:

A woman sees a plastic surgeon who offers her a new procedure -- a face lift with a knob installed above the hairline. The knob can be turned to "tighten things up" as time goes by -- but not more than two full turns.

Several years later the woman returns to see the surgeon, complaining about bags under her eyes.

The surgeon examines her and explains that the "bags" are actually her breasts -- she had greatly overtwisted the adjusting knob.

The woman exclaims, "Oh, I guess that explains the goatee!"

Posted by Norman Rogers | September 13, 2007 6:06 PM

Although there may be plenty of roles for actresses over 40, there aren't quite so many really good, leading roles. As far as I can see this is because a large percentage of Hollywood films seem to need an element of romance/love/sex in the plot -- even if it's not really essential to the story. And audiences apparently want to see young, really hot women romancing/falling in love/screwing instead of older women like Moore (the dynamic isn't completely missing when it comes to men, either, it's just that the scale is adjusted by, oh, about 15 years). Not that Demi Moore doesn't look great. She does. She's very hot for a 40-something woman. It's just that she's not going to be playing opposite, say, a 30-something leading man.

Posted by Jasper | September 13, 2007 7:28 PM

Jasper,

With Hollywood, Demi wouldn't be playing opposite a 60-something leading man. For women, it's all about appearance.

Posted by Half Canadian | September 13, 2007 8:36 PM

The first couple plastic surgeries generally seem to give the desired results. I'm thinking of many actresses who look unreasonably good for their age. But then, eventually, they go too far, and it seems like their appearances all converge on some ghoulish, over-surgeried look. You know, the shiny lips with sharp corners, the tight forehead, the eyes pulled open, the creepy rictus. A couple weeks ago I saw Heather Locklear on a commercial or something, and I almost jumped out of my chair, because she had gone too far. I said to my wife, "Hey, look, Heather Locklear has the plastic surgery face!"

Posted by Mike W | September 13, 2007 10:56 PM

"Although there may be plenty of roles for actresses over 40, there aren't quite so many really good, leading roles. "

Jodie Foster seems to have fairly steady work in leading roles. Granted, there's getting to be a certain sameness about them, but they're there.

Then again, she can act.

Nicole Kidman's had too much plastic surgery. She looks like an alien now. No wonder her remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers didn't do well - hers was already snatched.

Jennifer Tilly looks pretty good at 49, though judging by imdb she seems to have let things go a little this year, I suppose from her focus on professional poker rather than acting.

Posted by Jon H | September 14, 2007 12:11 AM

Huh! Who knew that Hollywood had produced ANY roles with substance for women.

I'm sure if I thought about it I could name exceptions - but isn't there only ONE role for a pretty young woman in a major Hollywood film?

Posted by Becky | September 14, 2007 8:45 AM

I find it interesting that the same town that casts 20 and 30-somethings to play high school kids casts teenagers and early 20-somethings to play successful career-women in their prime.

But then it also peeves me to see Asians so consistently miscast. As if all Asians are interchangable.

Posted by Christina | September 14, 2007 11:02 AM

There are a few really great rolls for women of a certain age, and they all go to the likes of Meryl Streep and Helen Mirren, great actresses who proudly look their age. The problem with former starlets is that they still want to play starlet rolls, but a 45 year-old woman acting like someone much younger is grotesque, not matter how good she looks. I love Sarah Jessica Parker, but for me, she was really skating on the edge in Failure to Launch. I think there's room for adventure, romance, etc. movies with older characters. Look at Diane Keaton in Something's Gotta Give. Isn't Demi Moore supposed to be some kind of Hollywood powerhouse? Why doesn't she develop better roles for herself? That's what Sandra Bullock does. Of course, the problem is that Demi doesn't want mature roles -- she wants starlet roles. Anyway, no matter how many meaty roles there are for older women, she wouldn't get those either because, as Matt Feeney says, with all that work, she doesn't look like a believable older woman.

Posted by Gloria | September 15, 2007 11:24 PM