Kim Cattrall found fame as the sex-crazed Samantha Jones on the hit HBO series “Sex and the City,” but the real-life actress has revealed that Hollywood is still not captivated by older women.
The 60-year-old English-Canadian star told BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire on Tuesday that she’s not interested in taking on stereotypical roles because of her age.
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“I’m not ready to play someone who is grotesque,” said Cattrall. “Either from being thought of as a very, very older woman, at 60-61 this year, which I’m not, and I don’t feel that way. That’s why I don’t depend on Hollywood for jobs anymore. That’s why I became an executive producer.”
And despite having a high-profile career, Cattrall insisted she doesn’t feel pressure to maintain a youthful appearance.
“If I want to look a certain way then that’s for my satisfaction,” she explained. “I don’t do it because of my work, I do it because that makes me feel good.”
Still, Cattrall has admitted to encountering ageism over the years, despite her success on-screen.
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“It starts in a little bit of a whisper,” said Cattrall. “’Can she come in and have a meeting? We just want to see what she looks like. We want to see her skin, where she’s at.’”
She revealed that this is a common tactic used to find out how old an actress really looks.
“It’s a polite way of doing that,” said Cattrall.
But even the actress gave herself a hard time when she was initially approached to play confident, conquest-seeking Samantha.
“I turned down the role three time,” previously said Cattrall at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in 2016. “At the time I was just about to turn 41 and I was practicing ageism on myself. I felt I couldn’t be the sex bomb any more. You have to understand that this was 1997. We’ve come a long way since then — 40 is now the new 25, 60 is the new 40. I was just thinking: ‘Who is going to believe it? And do I want to do it?’”
Cattrall would go on to play Samantha for 13 years.