But the screen is finally widening. From Isabelle Huppert’s erotic thriller at 63 to Michelle Yeoh’s Oscar-winning multiverse martial artist at 60, mature women are no longer fighting for scraps. They are redefining the lead role. A 2023 San Diego State University study on the top 100 grossing films found that while only 28% of speaking characters were women over 40, the percentage has nearly doubled since 2015. More telling: films with female leads over 45 grossed, on average, 20% more at the box office than those without— The Lost City (Sandra Bullock, 57), Glass Onion (Janelle Monáe aside, the ensemble’s power came from veterans like Jessica Henwick and Kate Hudson, but more pivotally, Jamie Lee Curtis, 64).

The second act, it turns out, is just the beginning.

Upcoming: The Tutor (Helen Mirren, 78, playing a scheming academic), Wicked (Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible—a villain, not a sweet old thing), and The Governesses (Isabelle Huppert, 70, in a polyamorous art-world drama). Mature women in cinema are no longer an “inspiring exception.” They are a market force, a creative necessity, and a long-overdue correction. The screen has room for mothers, yes—but also for lovers, fighters, criminals, geniuses, and fools, of every age.

For decades, Hollywood operated on a cruel arithmetic: a male actor’s value appreciated with age, while a woman’s depreciated after 35. The “aging curve” consigned countless talented performers to roles as meddling mothers, wise grandmothers, or ghosts—literally or figuratively.

Streaming has accelerated this. Netflix’s Grace and Frankie (Jane Fonda, now 86; Lily Tomlin, 84) ran for seven seasons—proving appetite for stories about sexuality, friendship, and reinvention in one’s 70s and 80s. 1. The Sexual Being For years, desire on screen belonged to the young. Then came Good Luck to You, Leo Grande (2022). Emma Thompson, 63, plays a repressed widow who hires a sex worker. The film’s radical act? Showing a woman’s body—sagging skin, wrinkles intact—experiencing pleasure and self-discovery. Thompson insisted on full nudity. “We never see real older bodies in cinema,” she said. “That has to change.”

As Emma Thompson put it: “The only thing more tiresome than being invisible is being visible only as a lesson. Give us chaos. Give us desire. Give us the wheel.”

Michelle Yeoh in Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) didn’t just win Best Actress—she shattered the notion that high-octane physicality has an expiration date. Training for months at 59, she performed her own kung fu, butt-plug-fight-sequence and all. Meanwhile, Angela Bassett (64) earned a Best Supporting Actress nomination for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever —playing a grieving queen, warrior, and stateswoman.