If Hollywood Age Gaps Were Gender-Swapped

In movies, women are often paired with much older men. What if men were paired with women of the same age gap?

Emma Thompson is just one of a number of actors who have sounded off on ageism against women in Hollywood.

Columbia Pictures

Thompson noted the prevalence of age gaps in movies, joking that they would "have to exhume someone to play my leading man."

Thompson, 56, plays opposite Robert Redford, 79, in A Walk in the Woods. That's an age gap of 23 years.

Broad Green Pictures

But what if that age gap was flipped, and Redford was paired with an actress 23 years older than he?

Marvel

To accomplish that age gap, Redford would need to be paired with an actress born in 1913, like Ellen Albertini Dow of Wedding Crashers.

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Dow died this year at the age of 101.

In As Good As It Gets, Jack Nicholson, age 60, was paired with Helen Hunt, 34.

Columbia TriStar

If Nicholson had been paired with an actress with the same age gap, he would have been opposite someone born in 1911.

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Lucille Ball would have been the correct age, but she passed away in 1989, eight years before the release of As Good As It Gets.

In Get Smart, Steve Carell, then 46, was paired with Anne Hathaway, 26, for a 20-year age gap.

Warner Bros.

That same gap flipped would put Carell with an actress born in 1942, such as Barbra Streisand.

Frazer Harrison / Astrid Stawiarz / Getty Images

Streisand was 66 in the year Get Smart was released, and we're guessing she would make a great spy.

There's a 21-year age gap in Focus as Will Smith, 46, stars opposite Margot Robbie, 25.

Warner Bros.

In the film, Smith's character is upset about developing a romantic relationship with a con partner, but somehow not upset about developing a romantic relationship with a girl who was born the year he could start legally drinking.

In order to flip that age gap, Smith would be cast opposite an actress born in 1947, like Glenn Close.

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Emma Stone was 25 in Woody Allen's Magic in the Moonlight, while Colin Firth was 53. That's a gap of 28 years.

Sony Pictures Classics

Flipping that gap would have required an 82-year-old actress, such as Debbie Reynolds.

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Elizabeth Taylor was also born in 1932, but passed away in 2011, three years before the movie.

In Third Person, Liam Neeson and Olivia Wilde are paired up despite a 32-year age gap!

Sony Pictures Classics

If that gap were flipped, Neeson would have starred opposite an 89-year-old actress, such as Maureen O'Hara.

Pablo Cuadra / Frazer Harrison / Getty Images

In short, let's either give some octogenarians more roles or STOP THIS MADNESS.

NBC